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This year Facebook has been criticized mercilessly regarding its terms of service (TOS). Members have been upset because Facebook changed its TOS to basically say they own your content in perpetuity. Savvy internet users were not impressed. Because of the backlash, Facebook returned to its original TOS which states you own the content you post on Facebook and can control how it's shared via privacy settings. The debate goes on and on and I won't re-hash it here. What I want to discuss is a new Facebook application by Creative Commons that was released last week and whether it's a real solution to the Facebook terms of service argument.
Connie Crosby has posted a video on her site that promotes Understanding the Facebook Terms of Service if you aren't familiar with the issues (please note that the broadcaster uses inaccurate Pig Latin, do not be confused). For even more information on the TOS, click over to Mashable's article, Facebook Responds to Concerns Over Terms of Service.
Last week Creative Commons released a Facebook application that allows Facebook users to "choose and place a CC license badge on their profile page indicating which license they want their content to be available under. Alongside the badge is text that explains what content (Photos, Videos and Status & Profile text are currently available as options) is licensed."
Amy Sample believes it's a great idea to implement the application on your Facebook page: "Facebook has a great deal of content you are creating, uploading, posting, and sharing. Why not license that as well so that your Flickr photos AND your Facebook photos are both included. So that your blog posts AND your status messages are both licensed."
Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today explains just how the Creative Commons Facebook applications works and why it may not be much more than a "'stop gap' solution": By placing it on your profile, you are licensing all the content you post--whether it's owned by you or not and whether you want to license certain content differently than other content. According to Jonathan, "Both of these problems are actually due to limitations on the app placed by Facebook. According to the application’s author, until Facebook integrates properly with CC, there won’t be any way to license images individually, as people do on Flickr now."
What do you think? Were you even aware of the Facebook TOS issues? Do you think the Creative Commons Facebook application will make a difference? Is it just a band-aid or a real solution? Will you be using the CC app?
Melanie Nelson writes tips and instructions for beginning and intermediate bloggers at Blogging Basics 101.
