Can You Declare Copyright On Your Facebook Posts? No, Because They’re Already Copyrighted.

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We can all use more useful tools for finding idiots on social media. And seeing the following text is a rather large indicator that somebody can’t use Google.

In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention). For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!

Yes, this hoax is sweeping Facebook! Again! So, once and for all, here’s why you can’t copyright anything you put on Facebook: You already have the copyright, and you never gave it to Facebook.

First of all, there is no “Berner Convention.” There is a Berne Convention, but it doesn’t apply here because Facebook doesn’t claim a copyright on your posts. As the site explains right here, however, you do grant Facebook a license to use your content whenever you post, specifically

…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.

If you need a translation of that from the legalese, the short answer is that you own everything you post, but by putting it up on Facebook, you give Facebook (and anybody Facebook feels like giving your stuff to) the right to use it until the end of time, for free, anywhere in the universe, as long as somebody, even a total stranger, still has it on Facebook’s servers.

So posting that block of text up top is pointless: You still have the copyright, but the cat is far, far out of that bag. Your copyright is little more than a legal fiction.

In theory, you can limit and control how Facebook uses your data, but in reality, if you don’t want Facebook to use your stuff with impunity? Delete it. It’s the only way to be sure.

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