Many people download my images to use them for personal use (which does not include printing by the way) and I am totally happy about that. I'm also aware that some of my images get uploaded to facebook so I thought I would check out their Terms of Use.

Man, was I shocked!

Their Terms of Use are wholly unacceptable for me and I will never grant permission to anyone to upload any image of mine to facebook. Not at any price. Any permission I have given in the past for people to upload images to facebook has now expired.

Let me point out what I find so distasteful about the facebook Terms of Use. Firstly the paragraph that relates to copyright for "User Content Posted on the Site":

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content.

Basically what they are saying is whenever an image (or any content) is uploaded to their site, they own the rights to do anything they please with it.

Here is the important part:

By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

Why is that bad? I think it's pretty obvious. They can do anything they like, including modifying or making money from my work. They can sell my images if they like!

When a photographer takes a photo, he or she owns that photo/image and all rights associated with the instant it is taken, regardless of who is in it (as long as it was legally obtained, of course). Commercial use of those images sometimes requires model releases and so on, but that's a whole other issue.

As soon as anyone takes an image of mine and uploads it to facebook, facebook gain the rights that were previously held only by me.

Of course, that's bollocks and unacceptable and I won't stand for it.

UPDATE: It seems I am not alone in calling shenanigans on facebook's Terms of Service. Here are just a few of many links on the topic:

• GarnerWeb: Facebook Terms of Service
• Kris Larson: Facebook Terms of Use
• Greg Reinacker: Facebook’s crazy terms of use

To see just how much has been written on the topic, see this google search on Facebook Terms of Use. Thanks to GarnerWeb for the google search link.