Facebook and the media

When the Spitzer debacle unfolded last March, the NYT basically wrote a profile of his "gal pal," with photographs, from her MySpace page. My impression was that they basically lifted it all. The result was odd -- a serious-type NYT profile peppered with casual quotes from MySpace about her life's aspirations, favorite colors, etc.

 

How is taking a Facebook photo different from -- say -- using a mugshot out of a school yearbook?

Thing with Facebook is that a photo of you can be posted on your site by someone else. You don't have anything to do with taking or posting it. How are you going to give permission?

 

If you don't want it published, don't put it on the internet.

 

Jay, the thing with Facebook is that anybody can put a picture up of you, with or without your consent. You can untag it, but the picture is still there as long as the original uploader decides to keep it up. So it's not always a case of whether you want it put on the net.

 

I wanted to say that terms of service clauses, or the "click through" agreements didn't stand up in court and I remember hearing that in some intellectual property law classes I took somewhre along the line.