Facebook has been all over the news since management decided to hold off on its plan to take ownership of facebook user's content. Funnily enough this seems to be making more headlines now than at the time they actually changed their terms of use to claim ownership of our photos. I remember hearing about it some time ago, but kind of brushed it aside. It seems other facebook users were more proactive, leading to facebook 'holding off' on the ownership issue.
It only hit me yesterday, the audacity of what they were trying to do. So I go out, carry my camera around, aim to take good photos, upload them onto facebook, using my electricity and internet connection, then suddenly the photos are owned by facebook even after I end my membership?! Kwasiasem!
What a smart way to steal valuable art from innocent users! A quick scour round our pages and I'm sure they've found top notch photos of celebrities, heads of states, historical moments, etc. and without paying a penny facebook can claim these and pass them on as their own.
It then hit me that if they get away with it, what's not to stop blogger, wordpress or other engines from doing the same with their users. Imagine, as a blogger, that one day, everything you've written on your blogger's site is owned by the engine supporting you! I must say it is a very cost-efficient, convenient way of finding works to be published as books, articles and columns. Considering the amount of blogs that have been turned into books, e.g. Petite Anglaise, Girl with a one track mind, it would be quite a lucrative idea, indeed.
When I thought of this, and remembered the hours and hours I have spent thinking, working, writing and editing my blog, I felt horrified. Based on that, and the general cheekiness of facebook, I'm glad it looks like they're handing back ownership of our property to us.
8 comments:
I side with your views, Maya, and share your great fear about if blogger suddenly took over our intellectual property. There'd be equal numbers of murders and suicides, I say!
Well, the murders will be justified, but we'l have to do something to prevent the suicides! :)
I also have a sneaky suspicion that sooner rather than later, the greedy grabbing fingers of those who consider themselves owners of blogger,facebook etc. will be knocking at the door asking for the rent.
hahahahahaha!!!
i pray blogger and wordpress and the like don't follow in that line...
else i would go look for the cutlass my great great great great-grandfather used and give them a chase!!! just the chase... no murders...and that i promise...just the chase!
or else i would pray to god to give me the strength and insight to build the most destructive sofware virus that i would target at them...
yooooooooooooooo!!!
but i like that word the lots...it's sweet... Kwasiasem!
just back on the word there again...
there's something more that enters the feeling when the 'nnnn' sound prefixes the Kwasiasem!
lovely still!!!
ah, I know it's scary. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to blogger. Happy that not 2 many pics of me are out on Facebook.
Posekyere and Novisi,
I believe many of these engines saw dollar signs when facebook introduced these policies, but hopefully they have now been deterred from taking similar steps. Otherwise, your ancestorial cutlass may come in very handy, Novisi!
And I'm glad you're enjoying my faulty twi spellings!
Well the good news, for now Adaeze, is that it seems facebook are giving us back ownership of our content. Let's just hope they warn us well ahead of time before they try anything like this again!
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