The popular social networking site Facebook has come under fire for its terms and conditions which state that by putting up photographs on the site you grant to Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license to use, copy or publicly perform, display, reformat, translate and distribute such user content in connection with the site or its promotion.
This may allow the website to use your photographs in its ads without seeking prior permission and may have serious repercussions with regard to the privacy of the site users.
The issue came up earlier when the facebook pictures of a Canadian stabbing victim were used by newspapers reporting the event.
While we know that photos posted online do not vitiate the copyright held by the owner of the same the status of copyright in the face of the terms and conditions put forth by Facebook becomes complex.
With courts holding that shrink-wrap and click-wrap agreements are valid that is one defence denied to copyright holders.
It is surprising though that it took so long for the terms and conditions of such a popular social networking site to come up as being problematic.
