I suppose this is my own fault for not noticing it sooner.
Every time you view a photo album uploaded by someone to Facebook, there is an option there to “Post Album to Profile.” What this does is allow someone to take your photo album and post it to their Facebook profile. And rather than properly credit it, the album appears on that person’s profile credited to that person. I’m really unhappy that someone posts MY album to THEIR profile and then gets comments praising the photos.
Of course this goes with the territory. There are zillions of web sites that allow people to post their digital photos online and relatively few of them protect those uploads in any way. I suppose given the original concept of Facebook, it would be natural for someone to post pictures of their Auntie Grizelda or some kegger or their dog humping a turtle and then their family or friends might want to include those on their profile as well.
So perhaps I shouldn’t be so cheesed off about this. Maybe I should take it as a compliment that someone likes my photos enough to want to steal them and claim them as her own? Hell no!
But I think I will be posting far fewer photos to Facebook in the future.
My view on this stuff is pretty simple. I’ll ‘share’ what I create FOC on the day I can go to the supermarket and share their products FOC or share gas at the petrol station FOC, fly for a few hundred words of an article on a subject of my choice, drink for perhaps a one line gag at the bar – ’till then; really do think stuff should be credited unless you select an option releasing it.
Unfortunately Facebook offers no such option. One can places limitations on who can access a photo album (friends, friends of friends, everyone, etc.) but there is no way I can find to limit this “post to profile” option. So I’ve changed the settings for each album to make them only viewable by friends and I’ll see how that goes.
They still have the Honkietown watermark on them don’t they?
This particular album did. But as it happens, most of the photos and albums I’ve uploaded don’t have that watermark because I was being more circumspect on Facebook about my connection to the blog. I only started including the watermark in the last week or two. Even so, if someone should come upon that album on that person’s profile (perhaps via a search on Google) rather than mine, each photo reads “from the album XXX by” and then that person’s name.
I don’t believe in this particular instance that this person had anything malicious in mind. But it did highlight to me that if someone could do it with the best of intentions, others could do it with the worst.
Not surprising considering FB was founded by theft.
Let’s face it, anyone can right-click on any image and claim it as their own and upload it somewhere else. If you don’t watermark your images, your pictures can end up anywhere, even in ads, on dodgy websites or whatever.
FaceBook’s terms of service for photos are a disgrace – I will not upload any photos other than average family and friend pics. Take this:
Subject to your privacy and application settings, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
Note last sentence!!
Compare the Flickr ToS where they claim no IP other than required to actually show the photos on their website.
Good point. The good news is that Facebook deleted the album off that user’s profile within 12 hours of my filing a complaint. Which of course doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen again. A good lesson for me.
I just tried this, by posting a photo album of my wife’s to my profile, and it DID credit her as being the owner of the album.
All I can say is, when this person posted my album to her profile, it credited the album as being by her, not by me (on her profile – on mine the credit remained the same).