This includes pictures, video, text, etc?
Think about all the content you upload onto social networking sites - Do you own it?
Who has the right to use your creations?
I must admit, I've never really thought about these crucial questions before. I'm guessing that most people who use social networking websites or blog sites don't give a second thought to who owns the things that they are publishing.
As I was pondering over these questions, the only term that came to mind was copyright. So I decided to look up this term and found the following information:
The website went on to say that for Australia, there are no forms or fees to pay for a copyright. As long as your idea is original, nobody can steal it from you. In fact, you don't even need a copyright logo stamped to your work.
In Australia, The Copyright Act of 1968 ensures that copyright protection is granted automatically from the time that a work is created, until 50 years after the author's death. During this period, the copyright can be passed to others and bequeathed in a will. After copyright protection expires, the literary work is open to the public domain for use. The public can then use the works in any manner they choose.
However, the website then went on to say that if you create something for someone else, say an employer, the rights to that piece belong solely to the employer and not yourself. That got me thinking that perhaps in the situation of say, facebook, you are creating or publishing work for facebook itself. Facebook becomes the employer. If you published your work on your own website, then it would belong to you. But when you publish something on another website, the rights belong to them. This would be the same for other sites such as youtube, myspace, blogspot, etc. Ok, so I thought that my thoughts on this employer thing were genius, but after reading through the slides for week six, there is one slide that plain and simply says that when you put "stuff" on someones site, you are working for them. So there you go, I was right.
In saying this, I once made a youtube video for a competition which could land your movie in a feature film. With this, I had to sign a form which handed the rights to my movie over to them. They did not ask youtube for these rights, they asked me. This then re-opens the question, who really owns the stuff you place on the internet.
I believe that you ultimately own your own stuff; however, when you publish your stuff on a website for free discretion, you are giving permission for others to utilize your creations. It still belongs to you, the creator, however, others will use it.
I was going to leave my personal copyright debate at that, but then I read the slide which put forth questions like, if you found a photo of yourself or something you wrote in a magazine and were given no credit for it, how would you feel. Honestly, like many others I'm sure, I would be furious. I would find any way I possibly could to sue the company for all its money. This means that the debate does not end here.
I found another copyright website called 'the ten myths of copyright'. The third myth was that when you publish something on the internet, you automatically hand over rights to the public. The website said that this myth is in fact false and that if you wish for something to be able to be used in the public domain, you must somewhere have typed the words 'I grant this to the public domain', or something similar.
So there you have it. It is in fact illegal for someone to use your original work unless you clearly state that you consent to it. In saying this, if you publish something in a place where it can be copied, you run the risk of someone copying it - illegally of course.
References:
ACS distance education, 2010, http://www.acs.edu.au/info/21st-century-education/arts-and-media/copyright.aspx
10 big myths about copyright explained, DMCA, 2008,http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
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