Expert: Cathy Clamp - 9/21/2011

Question
Greetings!

As a writer/artist with a slightly twisted sense of humor, I'm planning on posting some original, short lines of twisted verse on my Facebook page in honor of the upcoming Halloween season (some are as short as four to six lines, and some are a bit longer). My question is this: At some point down the road I plan on publishing a semi-illustrated collection of twisted verse and the like, and will likely be including some of the aforementioned verses that I'll be posting on Facebook. Is there a reasonable way to ensure that I don't run into any copyright problems or the like (such as, somebody else claiming ownership, etc.)? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer
Hi, Jameson!

There a couple of potential problems with what you're planning:

1.  Do you plan to self-publish? If so, then where you've posted them is no big deal. However, if you intend to submit them to a publisher as a collection, you might have problems with them paying you for the right, since a lot of people will have already seen them for free (so why would they later PAY for them?)

2.  Have you read the Facebook Terms of Use? I'd strongly recommend you do: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php Specifically, have an attorney check into this language: "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 license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP 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."

"IP content" also includes text like blogs, posts and stories/poems/articles, just so you know. But what is a "worldwide license" and what does it have to do with copyright? Well, the moment you put an original thought into a 'fixed tangible form' (which can include electronic posting on a website) you own the copyright to those words. But you can sell or give them away with your permission. One of the ways to temporarily give away your ownership of your words is through a copyright "license". You're granting an entity permission to do what they want with your words. Guess what? Facebook's Terms of Use (which you agreed to when you applied for a page) requests that license and you gave it to them. They can further sell your words for profit to themselves (sub-license), they can transfer them without charge (transferable) for as long as it's on your page (until the IP content is removed) and all without paying you (royalty-free). Now, it's "temporary" because they say they'll give the license back once you delete the text, but then they cover themselves by the last sentence, "unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it." So what does that mean? Tricky question because it can mean several things.

So, it's hard to say what would happen if someone else claimed ownership after you post it. Facebook says they'll prosecute anyone plagiarizing but it would have to go to court. My personal preference, as an author, is to only post things that have already been published, or only post a small excerpt so there's still value in the piece to sell.

You probably also want to visit the U.S. Copyright Office's website. They've got a terrific FAQ page that answers a lot of questions and is written in simple language. http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq

In any case, wherever you choose to post or publish, don't sign your name without reading the contract/agreement/terms of use. It's very important to any career you might want to have in writing.

Good luck!

Cathy