Sunday, March 8, 2009

Copyright, Twitter and Facebook

I've tried Twitter now and I've given it up. It's crap. Writing one line to tell the world (viz. the five people who are your "followers") what you are up to is, ultimately, quite pathetic. Likewise, I'm not a huge fan of the "status" line of Facebook. I sometimes like what people write but I use it mainly as a spam-free email system. And of course, I look at photographs.
The recent shenanigans about the ownership of the photographs on Facebook has been very interesting. Facebook Inc. (I just made that up - I've no idea who runs Facebook) claim a right to use the photographs we upload. They want ownership and copyright. Fair enough, upload a couple of thousand pictures of child porn and call the cops. They'll soon run away from that idea.
But you have to see their point in a way. Their system, their servers, their storage space, their cost. If we are stupid enough to upload our pictures so that they are available to all then almost by definition we have surrendered our rights to them. I don't know. It's all very perplexing. I think the Australian legal system might have it right. To have copyright on anything in Australia it has to be of lasting value.
Facebook? Nah.

1 comment:

GC said...

So, in fact, Australia has never copyrighted anything! Ha ha! I don't know why I find the phrase ''Australian Legal System'' funny, but I do. It's certainly an oxymoron in my book.

In France (as opposed to here) individuals own their image, so French citizens have to give permission for their images to be used. So, how could Facebook Inc. 'steal' their photos? Does internet protocol supercede national laws?

p.s. Spell France. I can't - I give up.