I'd be interested in anyone's experience, thoughts and references on this.
At 10:06 +1000 6/8/15, a friend wrote: >Wondering what your thoughts on this are - see communications between me and >Facebook below. > >It is in regards to an automatically created "community page", which in this >case represent my College. It allows facebook account holders to "locate" >themselves at the College and thus have their posts about the place shared on >the public page's timeline. It also allows people to "review" and comment on >the College. > >I would liken this to someone setting up a table 24/7 in any public space, >with a picture of the school logo and name, collecting information about the >school and publishing reviews and comments about it. The school can only >respond to comments and content, but cannot remove it. > Facebook are asserting a right to do this, short of any "legal" rights being infringed. >Are you aware of any discussion around this? ... >An example is: <https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Friends-School-Hobart/109298215754526?fref=ts>https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Friends-School-Hobart/109298215754526?fref=ts Below is a brief interaction between my friend and Facebook. Below that are my quick reactions. > -----Original Message---- >> Subject: Reporting a Violation or Infringement of Your Rights - Other > > What right is being violated or infringed?: >An unofficial page has been created claiming to represent our school > > How does the content violate or infringe your rights?: > This page violates > privacy (our staff, students and property), putting our duty of care at > risk (as an educational organisation), our intellectual property (our > school name) and no doubt other legal rights as a school - we must meet a > number of requirements under Australian law to protect the rights and > privacy of our students, their families and our staff. _____ On Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 1:36 AM, Facebook < <mailto:ip%[email protected]>[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, > > Thanks for your report. It appears that you are reporting a Community Page > on Facebook that contains content from Wikipedia. > > A Community Page is automatically generated based on what Facebook users > are interested in. It is not intended to be the official presence of a > brand, public figure or organization. > > If you object to the content on the reported Community Page, you may > access the source of this information by visiting Wikipedia. In some cases, > you might be able to edit or provide feedback about this information. > > Under these circumstances, it's unclear to us how the reported content, > used in the manner depicted, would violate or infringe your legal rights. > > For more information on Community Pages and intellectual property rights, > please visit our Help Center: > > Community Pages: > <https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=163647573698534>https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=163647573698534 > Intellectual property rights: > <https://www.facebook.com/help/intellectual_property>https://www.facebook.com/help/intellectual_property > > Thanks, > > Lydia > Intellectual Property Operations > Facebook _______________________________ My quick reactions: I don't think any organisation has substantial rights in relation to its name. However, there are some constraints on how the name can be used, e.g. the tort of 'passing off' is meant to protect against an entity being actively misrepresented, and of course laws relating to fraud are relevant. In the Friends School example, the term 'Unofficial Page' is present in the banner, although not conspicuous. I think they could do better (e.g. 'This page is about the School, and is not managed by the School'). But that might be obvious enough to people who land on it, so asking for a more substantial disclaimer would probably fall on deaf ears. (Frankly, I'm positively surprised that Facebook even replied, even if they do say that 'you have no rights, get over it, go away'). A test is: What if an ex-school-student established, say, friendsschoolsucks.com? Again, I suspect that all the School can do is smile and cop it, post corrections or clarifications where needed, maybe in really serious cases pursue a defamation action. Another angle: might it be used as part of the education experience? Maybe senior students (prefects?) could be told about the site, asked to give their views, and gently encouraged to bring to the School's attention any messages that might need addressing (e.g. because they're usefully critical, or materially misleading, or unjustifiably harmful to an individual student or teacher). BTW, I haven't thought about things like this much since the late 1990s: http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/Netethiquettecases.html -- Roger Clarke http://www.rogerclarke.com/ Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 6288 6916 http://about.me/roger.clarke mailto:[email protected] http://www.xamax.com.au/ Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of N.S.W. Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
