Ahhh fall, that beautiful time of year when the air gets a little crisper, the leaves start turning fiery colors and everyone on Facebook becomes a copyright expert.
Seemingly tied to the autumnal equinox (or maybe it was the blood moon), Facebook once again became the epicenter of a large Internet conspiracy driving people to post this status:
Due to the fact that Facebook has chosen to involve software that will allow the theft of my personal information, I... Posted by The Hair Studio on Sunday, January 4, 2015
And each year, news outlets, lawyers and real copyright experts everywhere are forced to explain, no, your information and intellectual property are not protected by simply copying and pasting an arbitrary status update.
Way back in 2012, not the first or the last time this copyright PSA was trending, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said,
We have noticed some statements that suggest otherwise and we wanted to take a moment to remind you of the facts -- when you post things like photos to Facebook, we do not own them. Under our terms, you grant Facebook permission to use, distribute, and share the things you post, subject to the terms and applicable privacy settings.
This copyright post became so prolific, even Snopes felt the need to debunk it.
As Snopes explained, there are several issues with the copyright notice post including the fact if Facebook wanted to own your stuff, as a user, you cannot retroactively negate any of the privacy or copyright terms you agreed to when you signed up to use the free social media site.
How can you really protect your photos, posts and personal information on Facebook?
Option one: Change all of your settings to private.
Option two: Delete your Facebook account completely and move on with your life.
But then you couldn't follow Elite Daily on Facebook, and we don't want that, so just head over to settings and click that sh*t to friends only.
Citations: Hoax! Don't copy and paste that 'Copyright' Facebook message (USA Today), Stop! Don't Copy and Paste that 'Copyright' Facebook Message (ABC News), Facebook Privacy Notice (Snopes)
