Facebook: At it Again!
The facebook topic…Again
This morning as I was checking my google alerts and communications for my Best Buy Remix job I noticed that Facebook was popping up all over the place. People were talking abut the the changes that they had made to their Terms of Service agreement we all make upon signing up for an account there. I am not going to discuss the terms of service here because frankly, there are people much better than I am at explaining legalese. At the bottom of this post I will point to a few good examples.
I am however going to tell you about how they took down one of my videos and really left me no way to thwart this. Let me explain. I am not really mad about the fact that they took this video down for no apparent reason, but the fact that they did it will make me less incline to share on their platform.
The SXSW Pre-Event Meetup
A few weeks ago I attended a meet-up that I learned about on Facebook. This event was a Pre-SXSW (South by Southwest) networking event. At the event I shot numerous photos so that I could make a video and share it back with the folks that attended the event. The best method to do this was to upload the video to Facebook and tag those people that were in the video so they could see it.
This morning, as I logged into Facebook I received a message telling me that they had taken it down due to possible copyright infringements. They did not know about the music or if I was the owner of the images. This should not have happened because I used Animoto. Animoto is a service that allows you to upload your photos, choose canned music and make animated video with your photos. I LOVE animoto and they have a facebook feature that allows you to publish right to facebook from within the Animoto framework.
The video:
So why did facebook take this video down?
Did SXSW ask them to take it down? I can hardly believe that as the organizers were tagged in the video and encouraged me to share. Does facebook not understand that Animoto has canned music approved for public consumption? Maybe, it’s facebook trying to cover their butt every which way from Sunday from a legal perspective? In my mind, legal, and legal issues are going to become a huge burden as social media becomes more and more prevalent. Social media is all about transparency, conversation, communication and collaboration. Legal is all about control and pre-approved distributed messaging. If your facebook this will become a huge burden as the majority of the content comes from it’s users.
For an understanding of why most large companies are not engaging in social media. See: 15 Reasons why companies don’t engage in Social media. It seems to me that Facebook is afraid of the very things that made it so popular. Do you agree?
Explanations of the new Facebook T.O.S.:
Facebook: Relax, we won’t sell your photos
Updated Facebook TOS claims rights to your uploaded content, forever
What Facebook’s revised terms of use mean for your content
Will you continue to use facebook? Will effect your usage in any way?
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
NageBigue
Thanks for the link Keith. Your comments about the role legal constructs have played are fair and unfortunate. Lawyers do tend to be conservative and this comes through in overly broad terms.
I firmly believe that the law can be a powerful enabling mechanism and facilitate sharing and creativity. It just requires a lawyer that understands what social media is about and who adopts a more balanced approach.