How Facebook, Twitter content thieves operate in South Africa

These are social media ‘agents’ who steal your content, pose it as their own and then get advertisers to buy space on their page.

They steal your content – which has the potential to go viral - without crediting you and it’s all to boost their own online audience numbers.

This is a copyright infringement.

Working in digital media over the past few years has seen me come across this phenomenon all too often.

These Facebook ‘agents’ are ill-informed about copyright and the rules and policies of social media platforms. Or they simply don’t care. 

Patent, Trade Mark and Copyright Attorneys, copyright in South Africa, like in most other countries, differs from other forms of intellectual property in that it is not a right that needs to be registered.

Unlike patents, trademarks or registered designs, copyright vests in the author of a work.

Adams & Adams Attorneys partner, Darren Olivier, says when you upload content to Facebook you are uploading copyright-protected material.

But says that you run the risk of social media users sharing it without your permission and infringing your copyright.

He explains what you can do when that happens. 

Facebook can disable an account if is repeatedly flagged for copyright infringements.

According to an article on Mashable, Facebook is not the first company to deal with this problem.

YouTube faced similar issues about copyrighted work that had been uploaded to its site. The company began to employ cutting-edge technology to identify audio and video that violated the site's terms. Something Facebook is yet to do.

As the number of websites, blogs and social media channels grow, so does the demand for content. This puts more pressure on administrators and so they resort to stealing content in order attract traffic.

These Facebook and Twitter thugs are not going away. So protect yourself by branding your content – whether you’re John Doe or a brand.

Brand your work by use of a watermark of your social media handles, website address or even your brand name. Just make sure that from first sight, people will be able to tell whose content it is.

Be lekker and play nice on these digital streets!