Wednesday, August 11, 2010

What’s Up Wednesday: Tour DVD Just Got Bigger – Now 5 Hours of Content!; Do You Know Wal-Mart Wants Your Friends To Be Able To Print All Your Facebook Images?

Good Morning Everybody,

Tour DVD I love it when a plan comes together, in putting our “Captured By The Light 2010” tour together, one of the BIG benefits is the tour DVD we give each attendee.  This year it contains over 5 hours of additional content! 

To me that is just amazing value for everyone that takes the time to attend the presentation. I’m going to promise you a fast paced, information packed, fun filled evening.  And then you get to take 5 more hours of solid content home with you.  I just got word that our tour DVD is going to contain of couple of great lighting lessons from my good buddy, Tony Corbell, a photographer, speaker, and industry consultant. 

Tony Corbell Tony lectures around the world on lighting.  His easy, engaging style is loved by audiences everywhere.  Now you get to hear Tony for free just by registering right here for the “Captured By The Light 2010” tour.  Remember, use PROMO CODE CBLDPT10 and save $20.  Like I said, I love it when a plan comes together ;~)

Do You Know Wal-Mart Wants Your Friends To Be Able To Print All Your Facebook Images?

Theif2 - iStock_000004755173XSmall_thum I can’t say I’m a big fan of Facebook, or maybe better said Facebook privacy policies. Facebook ’s privacy policies, or lack thereof, have been the subject of great debate in many news circles for several months.  Ya’ know, things just aren’t private anymore the way they used to be.

That’s why I bring today’s story to your attention.  It seems Facebook and Wal-Mart have partnered to make Wal-Mart your convenient go-to source for all you digital printing from coffee mugs to paper prints.

That sounds just fine at first glance, but in reality your Facebook friends can also print any of YOUR images too!  Does anyone other than me feel that Facebook has over stepped it privacy bounds once again by letting others print and distribute you images?

I was first alerted to the story originally by DPT reader Steve Chastain who also sent along a way to neuter the Facebook/Wal-Mart initiative. I’ll include it at the end of this post.

AJ WoodA.J. Wood, another friend of DPT, Adobe, Twitter, and Facebook guru, also did a piece on the Facebook/Wal-Mart issue.  It’s a fascinating read - you can find the link right here.  A.J. has  included updates on the situation and even posted a video tutorial on how to neuter the process. Oh, BTW, be sure to check out AJ’s other content [link] – lots of good stuff.

Turns out that Facebook has partnered with more folks than just Wal-Mart.  Count Walgreens, Target, and Snapfish in on the deal too. Give a read to the comments following A.J.’s post.  Lots of folks are pretty upset about all of this and rightfully so.

I  noticed that one of the commenter's mentions that it was not the large corporations (Wal-Mart, Walgreens, et.a.) ripping you off.  It’s really your Facebook “friends” who are doing the “ripping” since they would be the ones able to print YOUR pictures. Ridiculous!  I say the ones that give the thief the means is just as culpable in the crime.

Steve’s Fix:

Inside Facebook go to -

1. Accounts>Application Settings - if there is an app called Wal-Mart - delete it.

2. Accounts>Privacy Settings>Applications and Websites (bottom left of page) >Info accessible through your friends >Edit Settings -- from here uncheck the box that says My Photos.

These two steps will keep your "friends" from going to Wal-Mart's Photo web page [link], navigating to your Facebook page and printing any photo on your page.

Thanks Steve.

And More On Facebook: Zuckerberg May Have To Relinquish 84% Control Of Facebook!

That could be the case according to an article I just read in this week’s issue of Business Week [link]. It seems Mr. Zuckerberg entered into an agreement with a Mr. Ceglia in 2003.  Mr. Zuckerberg was a freshman at Harvard at the time. If any of this stuff interests you, you can find the entire story here.

An Even More From Facebook’s Terms and Conditions;

“For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: 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"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.”

Uhmmm…  500,000,000 users – who ever reads all that stuff?

Just thought you should know!

___________________________________________

Hey gang, I’m standing down from my soapbox for now and getting back to real work.  Plan to stop back tomorrow for another episode of Business Day Thursday.

I hope to see you then,  -David

3 comments:

  1. The more I delve into the wedding photography business the more I see the traditional business model falling apart. Just as the music industry is scrambling to find new avenues and markets since they are losing copyright control so must the photographer. I read more and more posts of photographers saying they can't even get a gig unless they offer the CD of images which people promptly upload to facebook and their friends across the country print at leisure.

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  2. Thanks for the tip, I´ve allready done what Steve suggests, even though I don´t think we got that wall-mart thing in Norway. Haven´t seen it yet actually..

    I came over www.expono.com , a page where you can upload your photos, and post them on Facebook, and STILL have the copywright on them. I have uploaded a few, but I haven´t tried out to post them on facebook yet. Anyway, I am going to delete most of my pictures in facebook, just because I allways kinda hated the idea of people stealing my photos, and I also think that it suck that noone comes home to me anymore for a cup of coffee and an update with new PAPERphotos.. I really MISS that!

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  3. Oh, come on. Bashing mean old Wal-Mart may be hip, but they're just offering their printing services. It's a business and they're offering a service to customers.

    >Ridiculous! I say the ones that give the thief the means is just as culpable in the crime.

    Yeah, like window manufacturers are responsible for home break-ins because their windows aren't break-proof. Or is the crowbar maker responsible? Or Home Depot? Bull pucky. The thief is responsible.

    The something-for-nothing crowd is responsible. People who put their photos on FB are responsible. And, if you really want to bash a corporation, FB is responsible for promoting this nothing-is-private mentality. Ditto Google. They (and their ilk) screw with privacy so much that there's a whole two generations who have no concept of privacy.

    From another angle, i bet most people (in fact, the vast majority) uploading their images to FB couldn't care less if their "friends" print their photos.

    You don't want them printed, don't post them on FB.

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