Social media law 101 |
USER-GENERATED CONTENT
Although user-generated content (UGC) is nothing new, the rise in popularity of social networks and the fact that everyone now has a tiny camera in their pocket has made UGC increasingly prevalent over the past few years. UGC includes any form of content such as posts, blogs, discussion forums, chats, podcasts, digital images, video or audio files made available on social media. Marketers love UGC because it’s current, it’s authentic and it’s cheap. It also helps brands develop deeper relationships with consumers and in turn builds loyalty. Tons of brands are leveraging UGC on many different marketing platforms from social media sites like Instagram and Twitter to email marketing campaigns and in-store displays.
With the rise of the Web 2.0 and its focus on collaboration and sharing has come a whole host of copyright concerns. An uninformed marketer may believe that all images on social are fair use to share since users constantly copy and reproduce photos, but just because people get away with something time and time again, doesn’t mean it’s legal. Thanks to copyright law, the photographer retains the legal rights to any images they post on social media with one exception.
Most social networks have a user agreement that gives them and their partners the rights to share your content in channel. This means that brands utilizing a partner service to display UGC are good to go, ex: Tagboard, ThisMoment. However, most networks still don’t let brands profit from this content without proper approvals from the photographer.
With the rise of the Web 2.0 and its focus on collaboration and sharing has come a whole host of copyright concerns. An uninformed marketer may believe that all images on social are fair use to share since users constantly copy and reproduce photos, but just because people get away with something time and time again, doesn’t mean it’s legal. Thanks to copyright law, the photographer retains the legal rights to any images they post on social media with one exception.
Most social networks have a user agreement that gives them and their partners the rights to share your content in channel. This means that brands utilizing a partner service to display UGC are good to go, ex: Tagboard, ThisMoment. However, most networks still don’t let brands profit from this content without proper approvals from the photographer.
implied consentMany brands rely on implied consent, meaning they can reasonably claim that the user uploaded the photo to be used by the company. The most common use of this is via trademarked hashtags, ex: #ShareACoke, #RedCupContest. It would be very rare that a user would upload a photo with that hashtag without having an understanding of the marketing campaign which would have included terms and conditions outlining the brand’s intended use of UGC. Many brands would agree that most of the UGC they post falls under implied consent. The Terms & Conditions need make ownership status clear and it’s common for brands to allow their fans to retain ownership of their photos, but grant themselves a license to use them.
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Explicit consentAs more brands are marketing with UGC, explicit permission is becoming more popular. Explicit consent means the brand has specific permission to use the content. This typically takes place through network messaging services and many UGC gathering platforms now have a software solution to make this faster and easier to track.
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Other Copyright IssuesBrands must also ensure the person providing the photo or video indeed has the copyright. One big issue with the collaborative nature of Web 2.0 is that users constantly share photos they themselves did not take like in the case referenced above. Brands also need to be certain other copyrighted material like music isn’t included in anything they share. Video editing apps, such as Musical.ly have made it easier for consumers to add copyrighted music to their own images and videos, making this and ever increasing practice.
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