An individual who I KNOW to have at least a bachelor’s degree from a prestigious and expensive liberal arts college writes the following status:

“In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, status updates, messages, photos, videos, and all other personal content that I post (or have posted) online (as per copyright provisions of the Berne Convention) on my personal profile page, anyone else's page, or any business page. For commercial use of the above (my copyrighted content), my written consent is needed at all times. I DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY UNILATERAL "RULES CHANGE" BY FACEBOOK CLAIMING TO REVOKE MY COPYRIGHT!

“[Translation: Screw you and your profit-gouging, Facebook!]”

Now, this person has reposted similar stuff in the past, back when the meme had ridiculous references to the Uniform Commercial Code (inapplicable to copyright law) and an international criminal treaty. A lot of people have done this. “Oh, U.C.C. 1-103! That MUST be good!”

Let’s explain this for the last time: if you don’t like Facebook’s contract of adhesion, for which you pay $0.00, and yet receive the use of its software, linkages, and massive databases of “friends” for you to connect with, REMOVE YOUR MATERIAL AND LOG OFF FOR GOOD.

I’m a pretty liberal guy, no doubt – Obama voter times two, firmly and vocally opposed to Mitt Romney, firmly and vocally in favor of gay marriage…but I also favor military action to protect the U.S. and its citizens, and the necessity that children be born to committed parents, the need for the contract of marriage to protect both parties AND the children, etc. So I think my take here is balanced. Facebook is entitled to something in return from us connectors and ranters and meme-posters in return for providing us this wonderful, giant “Town Common.”

It’s not actually a public park, it’s a private amusement park, so it has the right to charge admission. It also has the right to enforce reasonable rules and regulations on its grounds, and to change those from time to time.

Now, before folks go screaming that I don’t understand copyright, and the Berne convention, and all that…well, it happens that I have a smattering of real-life knowledge and legal education which happens to include intellectual property law. So the remainder of this, which is based on my comments to the individual who I have LEGALLY quoted above (the individual put it on Facebook WITHOUT a copyright notice, and in any event it’s probably a meme and NOT an original writing), is to try to make it clear.

Your copyright has not been revoked. You in essence executed a valid contract, one which is subject to revision. You have the right to opt out if you don't like a change, and make sure that you exercise your copyright pursuant to U.S. Law, which as I understand is operative here. This requires you to register your copyrights and, in some cases, deposit a copy of the work of art with the Library of Congress. Having done that, you may sue for actual infringement.

In return for the PRIVILEGE of using Facebook's servers, connections, and copyrighted software, you grant Facebook a LICENSE on any of your original, copyrightable (whether or not REGISTERED) material.

If you do not ASSERT your copyright on each and every item you post, U.S. Law holds that you MAY have given away your copyright.

EACH item. Not a general statement in a comment. Not a sloppy argument in all caps. You need the old "c-in-a-circle," your name, and a date, and even THEN you haven't defeated the license granted to Facebook by virtue of your USE of Facebook. In fact, unless you have complied with the registration requirement, you can’t even sue in Federal District Court to ALLEGE infringement. This is like suing for trespass to land, in most states: there FIRST has to be notice to KEEP OFF. ANd yo may need a "deed" properly "recorded" with a "registry of deeds" or "county clerk" or some such.

TANSTAAFL. Do you get the products you sell at your store for free? Do employees who aren’t desperate college interns looking for resume material not get paid for giving you time? Do you not pay something for the essential use of real estate? Electricity? Internet access? WHY IN THE WORLD does someone with a college degree not understand that there are INDEED such things as "contracts of adhesion," and that they're nonetheless often quite binding? And why would you think that you get to use Facebook without paying the freight?
In fact, WHY IN THE WORLD would a person with LESS than a college degree claim the right to do so?

“The world does not owe you a living.” I don’t know who said that FIRST, but I know who said it first to ME: Lennox N. Lee, my father, now deceased. If he had lived to see and use Facebook, he would also have said, “Facebook does not owe you a soapbox.” And Len was a self-declared Sorehead. He was free with his opinions, as was (and still is) my mother. He understood that NADA is free.

And one final point: if you really think the holiday snaps you put up here are art worth money, DON’T PUT THEM HERE. SELL THEM. If you think your great story is worth something, SEND IT TO A MAGAZINE to languish in the bin. Oh, and IF you put them here, COPYRIGHT THEM PROPERLY and PROPERLY REGISTER THEM.

P.S. The government CHARGES a fee to register. TANSTAAFL. “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”

Copyright © 2012 by Gregory P. Lee Quoted material used under Facebook License and Fair Use Doctrine.