Comments on: Facebook – Should You?

By: Kerryn Madsen-Pietsch

Kerryn Madsen-Pietsch — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:52:48 +0000

I heard today via the radio that Facebook have announced their now ‘most ageeable’ terms for all fb users – they have listened to the outcrys of the outraged and disgruntled users and done what appears to be ‘morally right’.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:13:11 +0000

This is a sad day for all the visual artists.If FB can carry out their own laws and regulations, we should be able to do the same as visual artists.

By: Ariane

Ariane — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:23:21 +0000

Sandy – Since FB has done an about face, getting a legal fix on things might take a little while. I’m waiting for Att. DuBoff to get back to me.

As for Mari, no, I think her lack of response is simply that her business has run away with her and she has other priorities. It’s a shame, but what can you do? I sure wouldn’t want to be in her shoes right now…can you imagine?

By: Sandy Sober

Sandy Sober — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:55:42 +0000

Ariane – thank you for your concern on behalf of all artists. If you can pursue this, the entire visual arts community will likely be indebted to you.

Just curious . . . did Mari S. (the FB speaker at the telesummit) ever respond to your questions from smARTISTS?

If not, it makes me wonder if she knew that there was bad stuff coming at us.

By: Diane

Diane — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:05:00 +0000

Thank you! It is heartening to hear that you are approaching the situation slowly, tentatively and with plenty of reservations in light of the appalling terms of service that were originally inflicted upon us — the users of Facebook.

Good for you to not “wing it” or “guess” what these TOS mean to artists and to have lawyers working on it. We need an advocate, not a FB evangelist who stands to profit with folks signing up and staying on Facebook.

By: Ariane

Ariane — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:02:18 +0000

Yikes (again!) The virtual world just got permanently sticky. I’ve got an expert arts lawyer ready to research and write an opinion for a fee…what do you think? Is it worth the trouble, or has the answer already been written between the Orphan Works legislation and FB clout?

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:19:42 +0000

Sven,
I agree, no doubt that this won’t just go away. And if anyone thinks this isn’t also related to Orphan Works legislation, they’re being naive.
If FB is allowed to hold on to content after an account is deleted, they’ve got a pretty good argument for not being able to find the creator, and it’s very unlikely John Q Public is registering all their FB content with the Copyright Office. As such, FB can declare it all orphan works, and use it however they want, including selling it to stock photo agencies, etc.

By: Sven Gali

Sven Gali — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:16:14 +0000

In other words, Brian, you now have a few weeks grace to manually delete everything, or it all belongs to Facebook again, forever.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:08:12 +0000

Looks like they’ve quickly backed down.
“The site posted a brief message on users’ home pages that said it was returning to its previous “Terms of Use” policy “while we resolve the issues that people have raised.”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/18/facebook.reversal/index.html?eref=rss_topstories