If you upload photos to your Twitter account, you need to read this post!!

Remember when Facebook tried to amend their privacy agreement stating that the photos uploaded to your Facebook account became the property of the website whereby  you relinquish all of your personal copyright? And do you also remember the backlash that Facebook took after this announcement? Well, last month, in a sneaky amendment to their Terms of Service, Twitter tried to gazump their users in the same way in a bid to gain the right to sell or sublicense your images to anyone they want.

<div style="margin-right: 20px; width: 240px; position: relative; float: left;">[imageeffect type="frame"  width="220" height="129"  alt="Twitpic Logo" url="/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Twit.png" ]</div><strong>Check out this passage from the amended Terms of Service:</strong>

<em>You retain all ownership rights to Content uploaded to Twitpic. However, by submitting Content to Twitpic, you hereby grant Twitpic a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and Twitpic’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service. The above licenses granted by you in media Content you submit to the Service terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your media from the Service provided that any sub-license by Twitpic to use, reproduce or distribute the Content prior to such termination may be perpetual and irrevocable. </em>

<strong>For those of you who might not understand (or care to try and translate) this legal speak, by agreeing to the above you essentially grant Twitpic:</strong>[list style="orb" color="grey"]
<ul>
<li>the right to do whatever they like with the image including selling it, licensing it to whomever they like for whatever purpose, make derivatives (with their own adjustments to the image), or use your image to promote their own products and services.</li>
<li>you also grant Twitpic the right to grant other people permission to use your photograph, for whatever purpose they require, just think, your Granny could be the next cover model for the Girls Gone Wild quarterly magazine.</li>
<li>And the real icing on the cake here…Twitpic have a sublicense in place stating that even if you delete the images from your account, they still have the right to use the images. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, if you live in a communist state.</li>
</ul>
[/list]

Many pro photogs and photography enthusiasts already know the value of retaining copyright and will be aware that sharing photos on the Internet poses a threat to copyright in and of itself given the nature of piracy and sharing anonymously on the web. Those in the know protect themselves by reading the terms and conditions wherever they upload their photographs, and by adding watermarks or other protective measures to their photos. But what many casual photographers don’t know is that by sharing your copyright with the Internet you are putting your name and reputation at risk. If you upload your photos to the Internet without looking into the copyright protection of the websites you upload to, you are essentially handing over your name, your brand (if you have one), and your images while shouting “go ahead and do what you want with it, I don’t care”! But you do care, don’t you?

<strong>If you don’t care, you should.</strong>

So what’s the alternative for photographers using Twitter? First and foremost, you need to adjust the photo settings in your Twitter account, immediately – there are several options available including Posterous, MobyPhoto, or ImageShack who will not sell or distribute your content to any third parties or affiliates without your expressed permission. It’s also in your best interest to delete all of your old photos from Twitpic – certainly those that were taken before the 4th of May 2011…those taken after that date are subject to Twitpic’s new terms of service so don’t delay!

The lesson here is clear, read the terms of service, especially when uploading your copyrighted images. Goodbye Twitpic, I think I'll keep my copyright (and all the subsequent rights) thankyouverymuch. 

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