Facebook has finally come up with a solution to the problems faced by artists, photographers and other content makers who are usually reluctant to post their work on social media for fear of abuse and unauthorized use. The downside of this is that social media is also where you are assured of high visibility.
With the new Images Tools Rights Manager announced by Facebook, it is possible for users to track their image where ever it has been posted or embedded online, not only on Facebook and Instagram. The Image Tools Right Manager is available in Facebook's Creator Studio Platform.
The right to use an image that has been posted on Facebook, Instagram or other social media platforms has been an issue of controversy.
Techcrunch reports that when Newsweek requested to feature a photographer’s image and their request was declined, they went ahead to run it as an embed. The act opened them up to a copyright lawsuit that was filed in the summer of this year.
According to the report "Newsweek had assumed the embed was legally permissible, given that Mashable recently won a similar copyright case in the recent past. But following the Newsweek case, Instagram clarified that its embedding feature didn’t include a license — if someone wanted to use the photo, they would need to ensure they had the proper license to do so. That bit of information came as something of a surprise and the case with Mashable was reopened as a result".