time to stop sharing that ‘facebook copyright’ post

hint: it doesn’t really help.

by sara tardiff

Over-sharing is an art form on Facebook. Seriously, it must take hours to craft that five paragraph-long post about how your significant other of two weeks figuratively carved out your heart like the inside of a ripe avocado. And an entire afternoon to follow it up with an 100+ album of photos of you looking happy together, cleverly titled "LIES!!!!" 

That is some Klimt-level craftsmenship and deserves legal protection. We're talking copyrights. But if you post one of those mass-statuses declaring ownership of everything you post to keep FB from stealing your genius ideas, well, it turns out you're just wasting your time. If you post something along the lines of:

“In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, crafts, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention).For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times! (Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws.)"

...then you should probably know it's not protecting you in any way. This is just another one of those "Post this within one hour or [enter name of an ambiguous ghost] will haunt you forever!" things that somehow catches on. When you sign up for Facebook and hit the "I Accept" button (after most likely not reading the fine print), you're already agreeing to a set of privacy guidlines that includes the copyright of any intellectual information you post. No need for the status, you're already covered. 

If you want to take a closer look and make sure your brilliance manifested in social media is safe, check Gawker's break down. Over-share away, friends.