Does Facebook Own Your Family Photos?

Could Accessing Your Own Data On Facebook Make You Criminally Liable? | Techdirt.  A mashup site called Power.com is being sued by Facebook, which claims that it is accessing data owned by Facebook. What the site does, at the request of users, is collect social networking site information, and bring it all to one place. Apparently, according to the Terms of Service (TOS) at Facebook, the stuff you put on the site is the property of Facebook. I guess that you can keep it private; but, Facebook owns your pictures of your mother-in-law, if you put them there. Does that mean that Facebook can sue a site that you authorize to pull your data and photos, and bring somewhere else? Does this make the new site, as well as the user, criminally liable for violating anti-hacking statutes? Facebook apparently thinks so. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) thinks this is insane. So do I. 

Comments

[John]

George

Is it as simple as you suggest?

Facebook has to be concerned about opportunistic behavior like Power.com. Facebook is providing a lot of server space on which Power.com is trying to profit. If Facebook doesn't take the position that it owns its data it would likely have to create some special power of attorney so that it could proceed as a limited agent to protect its interests.

As between the choices, wouldn't you tell Facebook to secure the rights as owner rather than the duties of an agent?

Facebook, after all, is free

[Kelly Spradley]

Rick,
This is thought provoking. I have wondered what would happen to one's data if a site like Facebook or Linkedin goes down. We can't assume that those sites are infinite. That makes me want to download all the connections in my Linkedin profile. It is like a rolodex, and I wouldn't want to lose that information. Same with Facebook. My friends have tagged me with pictures that I don't own, but want to keep. I guess I should copy and paste the pictures onto my own computer as soon as I get them.