I recently made a Facebook page to promote my unpublished book. However, I was told by a friend to "never put anything on FB or you will run into problems later when you do try to publish. FB will insist on publishing rights since you did 'publish' on here first."

Has anyone else heard about this? If I post small excerpts (~100 words), can Facebook only claim publishing rights on those excerpts, or can they claim it for the whole book?

Oh my! I know nothing about FB, but that is disturbing...

I just sent Raven's quote to Treskillard to see if he's heard of this, especially since he posts excerpts of his story on there. I wouldn't put it past FB to do something like this, and unfortunately it is up to us to read the fine print. Do either of you have a sample of the fine print which would back this up?

I think a fan page on an unpublished book is a good idea, but I wouldn't use it (personally) to post samples. I would do that on my website, if I do, and use the facebook page to create excitement and interest in the world and characters. Do it in a way that helps other writers build theirs while getting them to think, "This sounds like a cool story." You could have posts like, "Char. A is a fellow mine worker trying to find a way out, while Char. B has the key. The only problem is, Char. B is possessed by the spirits of soldiers released by their mining who have the goal of retaking their land." Then ask a question that gets people to create the same level of conflict between two characters, or something. (Btw, that's the conflict between my hero and antagonist in my new book.)

Timotheus,

Thanks for letting me know about the discussion, and no, I've never heard of such a thing. Here are my thoughts as to why I don't think this is an issue:

[a] The person who writes something is the copyright holder according to law. Just because it is "hosted" on a particular site does not give them the right to use it for profit. You have only given them the right to display it exactly as you have typed it in. No more ... not less. You are the ultimate owner of your work.

[b] A few snippets from your book is not something that Facebook could or would attempt to capitalize on ... would anyone really pay to read such snippets when it is available for free on your Facebook page? The very act of giving the snippet away for free makes Facebook's monetary interest in the work worthless.

[c] Samples you give are not the whole book. No one, not even another author could duplicate the rest of the book and sell it. It would be something completely different and not your book. Even then you could sue them.

[d] If Facebook attempted to do something like that the bad press would NEVER offset any money they could make. They are well aware of their reputation and keeping up a good image. Thus they will never do something like that.

[e] One of Marcher Lord Press's authors is publishing an entire book on Twitter right now and then when it is done will make print copies available. This would not be possible if such things existed.

But ... keep in mind that a traditional publisher (if the WHOLE book were available for free online) might balk at taking the book on ... in that case they are concerned about first publishing rights. Just give a few tantalizing snippets and you are fine.

If you are concerned you could always put a © at the bottom.

Also, all of my blog posts automatically feed Facebook for me ... and that is what I want. There is really no difference to me.

This is my take.

-Robert

I hate to break this to ya'll, but everything you ever do/place/post on Facebook becomes theirs.

Under Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, section 2 Sharing Your Content and Information, section 1:

"... 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")..."

IP content being intellectual property, like photos, videos, or text.

There is one clause at the end that says: "This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account"... ..."UNLESS your content has been shared with others"

Basically you give them the right to use anything you post... (Thus why I really only post status's now.)


Side note: let's do the math on just how much of people's data Facebook "owns"
Pictures:
Recent estimates are over 10,000,000,000 photos
Original poems / songs / stories:
I would put it around ~60,000,000 entries.
Videos
Upwards of 264,000,000 minutes of video, with over 180 minutes of video being added every MINUTE!

All of this they own legally. Give them a few more years, and they will start using this to keep them afloat.

Can I rant some more?

Precisely why I remain off of Facebook

eru

All of you ... that's just lawyer speak for "you can't sue us for posting something you type in Facebook."

Another translation = "You type it into Facebook, then you give use the right to display it."

This does not mean they will steal your rights to a novel if you post some snippets.

Now, if you could show me a real life example where someone had a problem with Facebook telling them they could no longer use that snippet in a published book, I'd believe there is an issue. Until then, I'm not worried a bit.

Again ... Facebook is NOT in the business of stealing people's copyrighted material and then selling it for profit, preventing you from publishing it elsewhere.

If they did that then they'd be out of business REAL quick. They need the good will of their users.

I sorry if I came across as saying that Facebook was currently engaging in these activities.

What I meant to say was that there are two issues at hand:
1. Facebook having the right to use any work posted.
You cannot change this ever.
2. Facebook not suing people for using their work.
Facebook can change this at any time in the future.

Just because they aren't doing anything currently is not a assurance that 5 years down the road they won't.




(And here is where I will rant...)

Facebook requires you to give them an outrageous amount of rights. To be able to show your post to other people all they really need is a worldwide license to "display" your content.
But rather then just display, they also demand the right to sell your content to others ("sub-licensable") without you seeing a penny ("royalty-free.")

Twitter actually has almost the same wording in their TOU. They have a "tip" bubble that translates it into plain speak as:



Actually, Google says almost the same thing in their TOU for Blogger. http://www.blogger.com/terms.g

The only difference I see between them is that Facebook as "sub-licensable, transferable" rights in addition to "non-exclusive," etc. Thoughts? I'm beginning to think this is not a problem, but I wanted to bring the similarities in TOU up.