Daily Rant – You Do Realize It’s the Internet Don’t You?
It’s that time again! Facebook had made some changes to it’s ToS, and so people have started posting what they believe is copyright protection on their Timelines. I’ve seen about half-a-dozen of these over the weekend. Let me put this in plain terms:
IT DOESN’T WORK!!!
Need proof:
I could find a few more articles on the subject, but I think that will do. You either get the point, or yo don’t. If you don’t, well, that’s it’s own special kind of delusional.
So now that the public service announcement portion of this blog post is done, allow me to get to the rant portion of this morning’s program.
You people do realize this is the internet. You do realize that nothing you put up here is really truly safe? If you want to keep it completely yours, don’t put it on the internet. What gets posted to teh interwebz stays on teh interwebz 4evAAARRRR!!!!
Well, maybe not literally, but it’s safer just to assume that. Assume that it can (and probably will) get out someday. Don’t believe me? Ask a certain general about some emails he traded with some chick? And those are private emails. Several high-profile celebrities and corporations have made some serious social media plunders this year, and despite taking those tweets and Facebook posts down, they still exist on the internet to plague the companies. Get some of the best here:
So the whole point is: if you don’t want whatever it is you think you’re protecting to get out there: DON’T POST IT ON THE GORRAM INTERNET! Just don’t. That simple. Once it’s up there, assume that it’s up there for good and that anyone and everyone has a shot at taking it and using it for their own nefarious purposes. Hell, I’m a writer who makes most of his income via eBook sales. Yeah, I’m pretty sure there are some pirated copies of my books out there – not a lot, because I’m not that big yet, but they’re out there. I even know for a fact that some people I know have pirated copies of my work. (It’s amazing what people talk about late at night at Renaissance Faires when they’re drunk and don’t know who is standing behind them in the dark.) Am I pissed? Yes! Is that going to make me not do business on the internet any more? No. I’m not stranger to people stealing my work, as I recounted in my previous post: “Burning in Hell and Other Well Wishes.” In essence, putting something out in public means you run the risk of having it stolen. If you don’t want it stolen, don’t put it out there. Plain. Simple. Straight forward.
Also: Read the Terms of Service. No amount of posts or arguing after the fact (short of a class action legal victory) is going to protect you once you agree to Facebook’s, Twitter’s, Amazon’s, or anyone else’s ToS and UELA. So, yeah, read what you’re agreeing to. Plain. Simple. Straight forward.
Realizing these two simple things: the internet is not safe and you should read the fine print (Gasp! What concept!) will save you a lot of heartache later.
/endrant
