It appears that we are entering another apparently annual round of people worrying about their copyrights, and rights to their profiles, postings and comments they post on the internet, especially on various social media sites they may belong to.
In response, they seem to rely on one or both of the following stock “Legal Notices” they find on the internet, to try and guarantee protection against photo, and or profile theft:
- Today, (Month, Day, Year) in response to the Facebook (or other social media site) guidelines and under articles L.111, 112 and 113 of the code of intellectual property, I declare that my rights are attached to all my personal data, drawings, paintings, photos, texts etc... published on my profile. For commercial use of the foregoing my written consent is required at all times.
Those reading this text can copy it and paste it on their Facebook (or other social media site) wall. This will allow them to place themselves under the protection of copyright. By this release, I tell Facebook (or other social media site) that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, broadcast, or to take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents.
The actions mentioned above apply equally to employees, students, agents and/or other staff under the direction of Facebook (or other social media site). The contents of my profile includes private information. - I declare that I own full rights to my profile, as well as all information and pictures appearing in conjunction with my site ID and Profile. I will fully prosecute my rights, in relation to anybody misusing those rights, especially students of (particular) University to use any of that information or pictures in their studies or coursework.
Facebook is now an open capital entity.
All members are invited to post a notice of this kind, or if you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you have not published this statement at least once, you will tacitly allow the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile
…or words similar to these.
Like the vast majority of disclaimers, these and similar legal sounding ramblings are useless with no legal standing, or added protection to your rights.
Note that there are several things which should raise questions about the indiscriminate use of these notices.
- It seems that the only country to have a “code of intellectual property” is France, so how would that be relevant to Australia, or America, (where most of the social media sites seem to be located)
- What is an ”open capital entity”?
- Why are you expressly instructed to not “share” the notice, but specifically “copy and paste it”?
- Why do you need to specifically post a dodgy sounding, pseudo legalistic notice to place you under copyright protection, when you are already fully protected under Facebook’s, or any other site’s terms and agreements, and more importantly Australia's ( or any other nation’s) Copyright Law.
It seems to me …and I am not a lawyer, but I do have a decent working knowledge of Copyright…that at best this is just some useless nonsense, made up at some stage by some paranoid “bush lawyer”
Most likely though it seems to scream
“IAM A COMPLETE PRATT!”
“I do not understand copyright, and I have not read or understood the Terms and Conditions of the site I am a member of.”
“So feel free to steal my pictures, my postings, or my complete profile”
But above all, if the poster claims to be a professional photographer, model or in any other arts related field, I would regard their professionalism with the contempt it deserves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Intellectual_Property_Code
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/bogus-facebook-privacy-notice.shtml
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/facebook/ss/Facebook-Privacy-Notice.htm
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/06/05/facebook_privacy_notice_debunked_.html
http://techland.time.com/2012/11/26/quit-posting-facebook-copyrightprivacy-messages-its-a-hoax/
©Copyright: Stephen Bennett, MMXIV
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Interesting Links:
My Photography Webpage
Facebook page for Professional Photographers and Models
The Definite Article Photography and Video on Facebook
My Pond 5 Page
The Definite Article at Publicise Me
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