Brand me!

We're all familiar with the Facebook banner these days. Personally I've always wondered whether I can use the Facebook branding without infringing any copyright and ending up in prison. After a quick search around the internet I found out.

According to Facebook, in regards to their banner they say this: "We do not generally allow the use of the Facebook logo. If you would like to request special permission for a specific use, please work with your Facebook business contact." Now seeing as I don't have a Facebook business contact, I'll take that to mean HANDS OFF OUR LOGO.

The use of just the "F" logo however is slightly different. Facebook says:

"The context surrounding the use of the 'f' logo should clearly indicate the action the audience is being prompted to initiate (e.g.'like us on Facebook' or 'use this app on Facebook').

Don't hyperlink the "f" logo to our Facebook login page. 

While you may scale the size to suit your needs, you may not modify the “f” logo in any other way (such as by changing the design or color). If you are unable to use the correct colour due to technical limitations, you may revert to black and white."

In other words, you can use the "F" to promote your Facebook page if you're a musician or have a page that you want more people to be aware of. The only modifications you can make to it are that you can make it larger or smaller. So anyone who fancies a bit of advertising you're free to use the Facebook "F" providing you stick to the terms laid out by Facebook. If anyone wants to read the terms and conditions in full go to https://www.facebook.com/brandpermissions/logos.php

Oh yeah, and while I remember... 

Find us on Facebook

Does Facebook have the right to use your photographs?

When you sign up to Facebook, you are allowing it to share your own information and also allowing others to share information about you. Your location, photos, videos, and anything you may be tagged in are all availabvle for thge world to see. The main question here is, does Facebook have the right to use your photograph for its own purpose? The simple answer is yes! As soon as you upload one or more photos, you surrender the usage rights to Facebook. "But they're my photographs," I hear you exclaim! Well tough, you agreed to allow Facebook to use them after you read the Facebook terms and conditions when you signed up.

Oh, you didn't read them? This is what Facebook says: "For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), 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 licese to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (Facebook 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."

In other words, until every copy of your photo is deleted from Facebook, they are free to use it as they want.

So is this reasonable? We think it is. Our perspective is that if your upload a photo to Facebook, then you are basically sharing it with the world by putting it online. If anyone is unhappy with this then the simple, and only answer, is don't upload your photos in the first place! The bottom line with any social network is make sure you know your rights and who controls the rights to your material online. Read the terms and conditions!

Read them in full by following the link here: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

How to make money off another man's back

So everyone in the world more or less has heard of The Beatles. They're world famous, and quite rightly too, they wrote some fantastic songs. Now these fantastic songs would have brought in tremendous amounts of money over the years, whenever someone bought an album, a single or legally downloaded one. Even every time a song is played on the radio the band still make money. Wouldn't it be fantastic if you could cash in on that money? One man found a way to do this. Michael Jackson.

In 1985, he made what was arguably the best business move an entertainer could make and bought the rights to The Beatles collection, for a pretty incredible amount of money no doubt! After which, each time an album or single was sold, or a song played on the radio Michael took his cut of the profits for owning the copyrights for the songs.

The moral of the story is that it's not the musicians that are in control of the things they've created, it's the copyright that they've taken out over the material. While it's true that taking out a copyright will protect your intellectual property from being copied, it doesn't mean that others can't make money from your work. Copyrights are a necessity for any kind of artist or business person, but it's almost always the record labels, in a musicians case, that controls the content. They're wrapped up good and proper!

So there you have it, if you want to make money manipulating the laws which covers intellectual property all you have to do is buy the copyrights for some multimillion dollar musicians material. Simple....right?

Information sourced from: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/07/01/michael-jackson-and-the-beatles-copyrights/id=4363/

Costing the world and arm and a leg.

 By involving yourselves in piracy and the infringement of intellectual property you are leeching from the global economy. Especially in the current economic climate, this revenue is greatly needed. According to Frontier Economics, digital piracy costs the global economy $75 billion per year, and the value of counterfeiting and piracy amount to $650 billion per year. The "industry" of piracy is making money by stealing the intellect of others. Help the economy and ensure this doesn't happen to you so make sure you...

PROTECT YOUR INTELLECT

Signing away your rights?

How often have you scrolled through the terms and conditions of a website without reading what you're agreeing to? Only 7% of Britons read the online terms and conditions, whilst 1/5 have said that ignoring the small print has had negative consequences!

What is our aim?

Intellectual property rights are often overlooked in today's society. We are here to inform the greater online community of their rights. Internet users need to know that they are susceptible to other users or organisations taking their pictures, thoughts and videos for their own... Protect your intellect.