Facebook has recently come under fire due to the fuss about mining user data and shattering the credibility of the world’s most widely used social network. Data from 50 million personal accounts was allegedly used to influence Brexit and the American presidential election.
But did you know that you surrender your intellectual property rights when posting your artwork, photographs, music and other creative product on your Facebook page? Facebook owns the rights to photos and videos you share with your friends or post as example of your creative talent.
Just read paragraph 2.1 of Facebook’s terms and conditions: “For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos[,] you specifically give us the following permission, 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).”
Facebook is not the only social media platform to employ these onerous conditions. You would not display your work at a gallery and invite the public to copy and resell your work.
In addition, social media platforms are not global. Facebook and others are blocked in some countries – leaving large segments of your intended audience behind. If you care to display your creative product, generally available social media is not the place for you.
We can’t repair Facebook’s credibility, nor change its terms and conditions, but we can give you advice for the future: share your creative work in places where you retain control of how it is used and how it is displayed. Not Facebook, not social media.
Obtaining our own permanent web address and web site is the best, most economical and reliable way to share your work with the public across the entire globe.
.ART fits the bill as the online destination for the world’s creative community. Our users retain full control of their work and are free to express themselves however they like. Our domain is a safe space for artists looking to represent themselves to the world.
Obtaining a web address and establishing a web site is EASY. Visit www.store.art or, if you want assistance, contact us at info@art.art today.
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