The Lunatic said:
Stuff like this technically falls under the "Parody" clause of "Fair Use".
As such, when you upload your images to websites such as Facebook or whatever, you enter into a contract with these organizations which outlines what your images may or may not be used for. These rights have to abide by copy right laws, and one of those laws is the right to "Fair Use".
Now, it could be argued that it is not "Fair use" is not being followed if the photos are used maliciously, but, instead it seems they're being used to mock a movement or organization rather than individuals.
So, to surmise, photos you upload to Facebook aren't owned by you, regardless of how personal you feel about them, and people technically have a right to use them for stuff. Be careful what you upload. However, by all accounts, no site is required to host the content, so, it being removed isn't really censorship, though it is a little bit of a double standard.
Oh, no no, no, no!
People might
act like that's true, but it's blatantly false.
To begin with, copyright is innate. So anything a person makes is copyrighted by default.
Secondly, the Terms of Service for Facebook (and pretty much any similar site) don't negate your ownership. That is complete and utter paranoid and or delusional nonsense.
What these sites do, is effectively to give them a non-exclusive perpetual right to use your work any way they see fit.
Note it gives
facebook that right (in this example) not every random stranger and person that happens to see your stuff.
So, Facebook can legally use your stuff in any way they like. (advertising, promotion, whatever). But they don't
own anything.
But other people cannot. That's copyright violation, even if it isn't practical to enforce.
You do. That's reality. By definition of how the laws work, I own this forum post I'm making as well.
You can almost guarantee that Defy media has it in their TOS that by agreeing to use these forums, I give them the right to do whatever they like with what I post here.
That doesn't mean they own it.
Just means I can't complain if they do whatever they like to it.
Your right to mess with it (quote bits of it, and so on) aren't because I no longer own it, but because it falls within the rights I've granted Defy Media by posting it here.
That's the legal reality.
Can I enforce that in any meaningful sense? No. Of course not. (nor do I see any point in doing so)
But it's still true.
Fair use is an entirely different matter, and shouldn't be confused with anything else.
Fair use says you
may be allowed to use my copyrighted stuff even though I haven't given you permission of any kind to do so.(remember that me posting on facebook or here is me giving implicit permission for Facebook or the Escapist permission to use my stuff. Doesn't give them ownership of it, just permission to use it.)
What is considered fair use varies. (and it's not a universally accepted concept; Not all countries have such a provision, and given that the internet spans the entire planet, something that's 'fair use' in one place can still be violating copyright in another).
But regardless of if fair use applies, or if what you're doing is indirectly covered by some prior agreement a person makes with an organisation like facebook, what is definitely
not the case, is that a person loses ownership of their work simply by putting it on a site such as facebook (or youtube. Or here. Or whatever).
Sure, you can't practically expect that to be respected on the internet, but it is really, really annoying that people are so used to it they don't even realise the original creator still owns the copyright regardless.
Granting someone rights to use something is not the same as granting them ownership.
People get used to weird stuff and think that's the way the rules work. But it isn't.
Maybe it should be, but then, why is it acceptable for a big company to sue you for putting their TV show on youtube, but if someone copies your picture off facebook without permission you should just 'get over it, you don't own it anymore! If you didn't want people copying it, don't put it online!'
Because, that is clearly stupid. Either copyright means something, or it doesn't, and we desperately need to decide which. Because when it's something that only has meaning if you're some big company with lots of lawyers, then it becomes a great way for said corporations to be incredibly abusive.
But that's a side issue to what's happening here.
Which is that some people apparently believe things which simply aren't true.
Does it happen online? Yes.
Does it happen a lot, in fact? Yes.
But that doesn't automatically make it OK.
