GILLESDENIZOT

Dear Mark,

thank you for your concern but I’m not unintelligent. Facebook privacy settings are not too difficult to understand and I do not need ‘a simpler way to control‘ my information. I just want to control my information, and especially MY music.

No, I do not want to grant you (or anyone else) a ‘worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, and publicly perform all sound recordings that I upload to Facebook.’ I appreciate your desire to own my recordings and I command your exquisite musical taste. Perhaps you would like to buy my CDs or sponsor new ones? I have quite a few artistic projects to suggest.

You are right in saying: ‘When you have control over what you share, you want to share more. When you share more, the world becomes more open and connected. Unless you feel in control, then you won’t be comfortable sharing and our service will be less useful for you. We agree we need to improve this.’ I agree too.

So today I wanted to share more of my music on my Facebook page. Edit Page, scroll down to Facebook Music Player application, click Edit, then click Add a Track. Easy. This is what came up:

I confirm that under Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, I have granted Facebook a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, and publicly perform all sound recordings that I upload to Facebook. I understand that I am solely responsible for all licensing, reporting, and payment obligations, if any, to third parties.

I confirm that I am authorized to grant this license to Facebook and that I own, or have secured from the appropriate third parties, all rights necessary for Facebook to use the sound recordings I upload, including the right to the musical compositions and any other copyrighted works contained in the sound recordings. I further confirm that Facebook’s use of the sound recordings will not infringe the rights of any third party, and agree to indemnify and defend Facebook and its agents and employees from and against any and all claims, liability, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related in any way to the sound recordings. I will not hold Facebook liable for any third-party infringement of the sound recordings I upload.

I stopped right there and deleted all my sound files and your application. Facebook allowed me to increase my activism and connect with like-minded people around the world. Thank you for this. I hope you will understand that I will now be alerting my network of concerned users. After all, when you started Facebook, you built it around a simple (and terrific) idea: ‘People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them.’

Sincerely,
GD
PS: Feel free to share your private address with me and I’ll send you a signed CD.