Samuel A. Lewis, a member of Cozen O’Connor’s Intellectual Property Litigation group, discusses the potential pitfalls of posting photographs on social media. Sam explains that, “there’s reasonable concern among photographers that posting images to social media will result in a loss of rights and/or control over such images.” For example, Instagram, a photo sharing platform, changed its contract terms in December 2012, bluntly stating that it intended to generate revenue through the use of its users’ images. Sam says that social media users should note, “the importance of reading and understanding the terms of a social-media service or website before deciding to upload images. Moreover, since the rights to any images uploaded will be governed first and foremost by the terms, the decision to accept the terms should be informed by the terms alone, and without relying upon any public statements or other representations appearing on the service’s website that may run contrary to the terms.”
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