Facebook Photo Thievery

[Azrail]

The OP admitted that the first bunch of pictures that were posted were not infact taken by her DH. In which case, going by what artk2002 is saying, he has also done something illegal.

Edited for spelling.

[Aeris]

Regarding permission from parents, they are deceased.

Also, DH wasn't born yet when the pictures from scenario 1 and 2 were taken. So he did not take them.

I think what is rubbing the wrong way is not that the pix were borrowed, but that it was done without asking first.

But if he didn't take the pictures, and they are pictures of her parents/grandparents, then I think she has a right to them. What makes them 'your DH's photos'? I'm not following that line of reasoning. If my brother had an old picture of my parents, I'd think he was crazy, and mean/selfish to expect me to ask permission to copy it.  It's my parents. It's our parents.

But what about the final scenario?  DH did take those pix.  And Caroline put up an album and claimed to our nephew that she had taken them.

Did Caroline actually claim she had taken the photos? Because lying about that, and taking credit for being the photographer, is clearly inappropriate. But if she just said 'hey nephew, check out these pics of your grandparents I've got on my site', it may or may not be a thing. If there's some history of her 'taking credit', or trying to hone in on your DH's relationship with the nephew, then maybe. But with no backstory, if she didn't directly take credit for being the actual photographer, I wouldn't see anything particularly wrong with it.

Just putting them in her facebook albums doesn't necessarily indicate she's the photographer - the vast majority of the pictures on most people's profiles that I know are not taken by them.

[WestAussieGirl]

I stopped posting photos to Facebook after this happened to me.  Someone took some photos of my children and posted them to their own album.  It bothered me.  A lot.

I did think it was rude - she didn't ask first and if she had I would have said no.  I don't think that putting it on Facebook makes it less rude for someone to just take something that belongs to me.

[Surianne]

Rude?  Possibly.  Illegal? Yes.  Sorry folks, but posting on Facebook doesn't invalidate the photographer's copyright.

The OP's husband didn't even take the photos originally. 

[MrsO]

It would never even occur to me to ask. Why would anyone mind this? It's not some random stranger, they're relatives. Why does he care?  I vote definitely not rude.

[Miss Unleaded]

Rude?  Possibly.  Illegal? Yes.  Sorry folks, but posting on Facebook doesn't invalidate the photographer's copyright.

In the situation where the husband had taken the photos I'd agree with you.  It's both rude and illegal for others to pass them off as their own work.

The first two scenarios are a bit iffy.  The fact that he scanned them but didn't take them makes me think that it's not a copyright infringement and probably not rude either.  I personally would have asked permission first.

Has anyone read the Facebook fine print?  I seem to recall some T&A about any material posted becomes FB's property to use as they see fit, but I am not sure whether this means that others may then use the images as well.

[greenleafmountain]

Has anyone read the Facebook fine print?  I seem to recall some T&A about any material posted becomes FB's property to use as they see fit, but I am not sure whether this means that others may then use the images as well.

I am pretty sure (like 95%) that they changed this policy after a big public kerfuffle, especially since so many professionals, like bands, photographers, etc. use Facebook to advertise their work which they clearly own the copyright to.

As to the original question.  I think it does make a difference that these are family photos which the OP's DH did not take himself.  I don't think it's rude or weird at all for other members of the family to save these pictures to their own profile/computer.  It would be rude if it was the OP's coworker or neighbor or someone who wasn't a part of the family, but why would anyone do that?

As to making something your profile picture, I think it the person is in it, then they can make it their profile pic.  (Though I may have missed whether this was the case or not.)  I think it would actually be rude of the original poster to put up a picture of someone, but then to deny that person the ability to use that picture (unless of course it's a professional situation, rather than a personal one).

I agree with others that if Caroline is explicitly claiming that these are her photographs, then she is rude.  If she said something like "check out the new family pics on my profile" then not technically rude, but it would be better if she said "check out the new family pics that OP's DH took/posted on my profile".

[Luna_Moon]

The OP admitted that the first bunch of pictures that were posted were not infact taken by her DH. In which case, going by what artk2002 is saying, he has also done something illegal.

This, exactly. It can't run both ways. If the pictures are somehow in the public domain, then everyone can have them. If they're not, then nobody should be sharing them. The person who scanned/posted them doesn't gain any legal or intellectual rights in my jurisdiction.

In this situation, the pictures are of miscellaneous origin and feature their shared parents, so in my mind it's completely illogical to think that a sibling would not copy them for his/her own use. I'd have to see the exact wording of the sister's comments before I could judge whether she was saying, "Look at the pictures I took!" or "Look at the pictures I have/found," which to me say very different things. One is obviously wrong, taking credit where it's not due, while the other is a completely reasonable thing to say IMO.

[whiterose]

I honestly do not think it is rude.

Now, had they totally edited the pictures to put mustaches and horns on people, now THAT would be rude.

[Two Ravens]

I don't think either item is rude.  The nature of Facebook encourages this sort of free-sharing among "friends."

If the OP's husband is so concerned about his pictures, he should embed them with a watermark or something similar...Or not post them.

[ShadesOfGrey]

I definitely wouldnt call this thievery, that's for sure. 

[SiotehCat]

I have a lot of family on facebook, and we do this all the time. They are pictures, and we put them up because we want to share them.

[TootsNYC]

The problem I have w/ the second one is that why didn't Caroline say to the nephew, "Did you see Uncle's pix of your mom and dad?" and send him to your DH's page.

Maybe she figured that if she copied them to HER photo albums, she would always have them, and if DH cleaned house for some reason, she wouldn't lose them. And maybe there's some way that's easier for sharing them if they're in her album--maybe she can tag people there, but not on DH's album, or something.

And "my pictures" can mean "the pictures on my page," which I don't have a problem with.

So I'm not sure I buy that it's totally rude, but maybe DH is feeling that her comment implies photocredit. That's not the ONLY interpretation, but it isn't unreasonable of DH, if that's part of the problem.

But your DH should go to her page, and make a comment that says, "Yes, I took those in 19XX; my brother Tony loved that shirt he had on; I think he wore it every other day!"

Then he'll claim photography credit.

And he should send his niece a message via her In box to say, "I'm glad you saw those pics. Please, next time you want to grab a copy of a photo to keep for yourself, would you add a caption that says I took it? I like my photocredits!"

But when putting stuff on Facebook, you do agree, I'm pretty sure, that other people can use it for private, non-commercial/profitable reasons.

And if you tag people, I think that gives them license to use or copy that photo.

[kandikrisp]

Part of it could even be difference in friends on Facebook.

For my sixteenth birthday, I had a big party. Everyone brought cameras and posted them. The problem was that at the time, I'd invited people from several social circles, and depending on the privacy settings of each, that meant half the guests from the party wouldn't be able to see some of the pictures, and that they couldn't be tagged in them, ect.

A lot of people kept asking what had happened to *all* the pictures from my party, because they'd seen about thirty cameras floating around the area and knew that there had to be more. So in the end, I had to combine everyone's albums into one big one and put it on my facebook. This way, even with the people that I was the only common friend, (which there were a lot of, a bunch of my friends came in from outside the city to come to my party.) everyone got the chance to see, tag themselves, comment, or decide to make it their profile picture. In the description of the album, I put, "Taken by... everyone. Too many to name! :^D" and some people went on and commented the pictures they took and said, "Hey! I took that one, hehehe!" or something along those lines.

Although, I'm going to be frank here... I'm not entirely sure there *is* such a thing as "facebook etiquette". Everyone kind of does what they want, and as long as it doesn't involve straight out harassment, pictures that can be reported, or threats made, there really isn't any kind of rules.

[ShieldMaiden]

People usually take or 'borrow' photos from other people because it allows their friends to see it if they don't have access to the original photo poster's profile page.  So if I posted pictures of my dog in one of my photo albums and my husband took it and put it in his album, that just means that the people who are his friends but not mine can now seem them.  Does that make sense?

I posted a TON of pictures of my grandparents, aunts and uncles when they were young, and my cousins when they were young.  They were taken from my grandmother's photo albums, and I tagged every single person in them.  Everyone loved them and many people took them and used them as profile pics, etc.  I had no problem with that.  (they weren't copyrighted photos, they were random photos taken on beaches and holidays, etc.)

Actually, I kind of like when people use my pictures as profile pics. 

As for the last scenario saying "Hey check out pics of your grandfather" does not constitute "I did all the work and scanned every single photo in here".  So in the scenario in your OP it's not rude.