The Berner* Convention, the Rome Statute, and You

https://www.facebook.com/facebook

"In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare...."

There may be no ten words strung together that are less effective than these.

It seems to me that there must be a machine at work somewhere that churns out misinformation and plays upon people's fears.  A premium example of that is the fact that the agreement to which the specious "Facebook Copyright Notice" refers is actually the Berne Convention, hence the asterisk in the post title.  

Let's assume for a moment though that I am arguing a semantic point, and that the misspelling is simply a typo.  The overall issue remains then that no one wants to have his or her image or work product misappropriated.  We can certainly all agree upon that.  Unfortunately, I am unable to provide you with any tips or "tricks" as to how to avoid these pitfalls, but I can assure you that the "Facebook Copyright Notice" will do nothing toward that end.  For additional proof, please refer to this Huffington Post article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/new-facebook-guidelines-chain-letter-hoax_n_2192673.html

I do not look upon this as a "better safe than sorry" phenomenon, wherein posting the Notice, however misplaced it may be, ultimately does no harm.  Instead, my belief is that the propagation of incorrect information erodes the quality of the system and potentially compromises the reliability of the individual sharing it - and that is the last thing I want for anyone.