Surely many of the VKontakte users have ever thought about what would happen if social network it won't. The main problem is that many users store a lot of personal information, friends, and correspondence in their accounts. So this weekend, users of the domestic “social network” were seized with panic when news appeared that VKontakte was being closed, and the personal data of users would become public knowledge.
The panic was provoked by one of the VKontakte users, who posted a post on his wall, sharing with friends that the social network would be closed in the near future. In order to protect his personal data from being viewed by other users, according to the informant, it was necessary to post his message to each user on his wall.
“From Monday there will be no VKontakte program. It will be completely deleted! ((We only have a little time left to stay on VKontakte! So, so that all your correspondence, and pictures, and photos don’t spread all over the Internet, throw this on your wall!”, - says the text of this message.
The message spread very quickly on social networks. Mass publications began on social networks with the hashtags #Bring BackDurov #vk_live #VkNotBecome. To stop the panic, the VKontakte administration even had to make an official statement that the site was not going to be closed, and technical support conducted its own investigation into the dissemination of false information. It turned out that this action was just an attempt to promote one of the accounts of an unscrupulous user.
Despite all the management’s assurances, the prospect of the social network’s imminent closure frightened the majority of users who use VKontakte not only for work, but also to store important data. The incident makes us think about the role of social networks in our lives. Note that this is not an isolated case; a similar situation occurred on VKontakte just a couple of months ago.
Recently, my friends on the social network VKontakte began to repost a very old “duck” that has been around for about a year. It starts like this: “Because since Monday old program VK is being deleted...” After reading the text of this message, I just smiled and forgot. But when I saw a dozen reposts from friends, it made me worry and write an article on this topic...
To begin with, I’ll give you full text of this post:
“The social network VKontakte will be closed starting next week, I will leave this entry so that my photos, correspondence, etc. do not spread across the Internet.
In response to the new VKontakte policy, I hereby declare that all my personal data, photographs, drawings, correspondence, etc. are subject to my copyright (according to the Berne Convention). For commercial use of all above-mentioned copyrights, my written permission is required on a case-by-case basis.
VKontakte is now a public company. That is why all users of this social network are recommended to place such a “privacy notice” on their pages, otherwise (if the notice is not published on the page at least once), you automatically authorize any use of data from your page, your photos and information published on messages on the wall of your page.
Anyone who reads this text can copy it to their wall on VKontakte. You will then be protected by copyright laws. This communique notifies VKontakte that disclosure, copying, dissemination of my personal information or any other illegal actions in relation to my profile on the social network is strictly prohibited.”
So, let's begin to analyze the text of this “warning” in detail. (This article is intended for ordinary users Internet, so I won’t use complex it terms.)
“Because starting Monday the old VK program is being deleted, I will leave this entry so that my photos, correspondence, etc. do not spread across the Internet.” According to the author of this message, VKontakte is one program in which all user data is located, and when this program is deleted, all the data somehow miraculously scatters across the Internet... From the first words it is clear that this message is intended for people who are not at all familiar with the structure of Web sites. All VKontakte user data is located on the company’s servers. All programs and even the Vk.com website itself just take information from servers and display it to users. In addition, there are many programs for VKontakte, in addition to official clients for various devices There are also unofficial clients who work to this day.
“In response to the new VKontakte policy, I hereby declare that all my personal data, photographs, drawings, correspondence, etc. are subject to my copyright (according to the Berne Convention). For commercial use of all above-mentioned copyrights, my written permission is required in each specific case.”
It would seem to be a very serious statement with a reference to such a document as the Berne Convention. But even here, not everything is as honest as the author shows. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is the name of this document, signed in the 19th century and revised in 1979. Naturally, this document has nothing to do with VKontakte and the Internet in general (it simply did not exist then).
VKontakte is now a public company. That is why all users of this social network are recommended to place such a “privacy notice” on their pages, otherwise (if the notice is not published on the page at least once), you automatically authorize any use of data from your page, your photos and information published on messages on the wall of your page.
“Everyone who reads this text can copy it to their wall on VKontakte.” You will then be protected by copyright laws. This communique notifies VKontakte that disclosure, copying, dissemination of my personal information or any other illegal actions in relation to my profile on the social network is strictly prohibited."
But this paragraph of the message is simply a lie, and not even a lie. And I'll tell you why. According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, content created by the author is already protected by law and additional actions to protect it (in our case, posting this message) are not required. Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 1259, paragraph 4, states: “For the emergence, implementation and protection of copyright, registration of a work or compliance with any other formalities is not required.”
Moreover, all user data is protected Federal law dated July 27, 2006 N 152-FZ “On Personal Data” and no additional actions are required on the part of the user.
From this brief “investigation” it becomes clear that this message is a lie, or in Internet parlance: a canard.
And you use this social network. Believe it or not, over the past week two people asked me the same strange question, in my opinion.
We were talking about an entry that had been circulating on VKontakte for a long time, beginning with the words: “Starting Monday, the VK program will be deleted, I will leave this entry so that my photos, correspondence, etc. do not spread across the Internet...”, etc.
The question was: does it work? Is it necessary to make such public statements?
To make it clear to everyone what I’m talking about, I’m posting the text of this entry in its entirety, and below I’ll tell you what it really is.
« Since the old VK program is being removed from Monday, I will leave this entry so that my photos, correspondence, etc. do not spread across the Internet.
In response to the new VKontakte policy, I hereby declare that all my personal data, photographs, drawings, correspondence, etc. are subject to my copyright (according to the Berne Convention). For commercial use of all above-mentioned copyrights, my written permission is required on a case-by-case basis.
VKontakte is now a public company. That is why all users of this social network are recommended to place such a “privacy notice” on their pages, otherwise (if the notice is not published on the page at least once), you automatically authorize any use of data from your page, your photos and information published on messages on the wall of your page.
Anyone who reads this text can copy it to their wall on VKontakte. You will then be protected by copyright laws. This communique notifies VKontakte that disclosure, copying, dissemination of my personal information or any other illegal actions in relation to my profile on the social network is strictly prohibited.»
This post has been circulating on the social network VKontakte for more than a year. I’ll say right away that this is all complete nonsense.
Such publications have no legal force (as well as common sense). By the way, the origin of this “duck” has already been investigated and on some forum it is indicated that this was done at one time to promote the profile of one of the unscrupulous users.
As for the legal part, it is immediately clear that the information was compiled with the expectation that the population is illiterate in matters of copyright. I'll explain why:
The Berne Convention (the full name of the document is “Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works”) is indeed still in force and is the fundamental international legal act in the field of copyright protection, but it was signed in 1886 (19th century). The truth was later revised in 1979. As you already understood, it does not regulate any relationships related to personal data, and especially to electronic correspondence on VKontakte. This is the first mistake made by the compilers of our strange entry.
The second blunder is the statement that “ If a notice is not posted on a page at least once, you automatically authorize any use of data from your page».
Any objects of copyright (photos, copyright notes, music, poetry, literary works) receive legal protection due to their bona fide creation by the author. According to clause 4. Article 1259 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, for the emergence, implementation and protection of copyright (including literary works), registration of the work or compliance with any other formalities is not required.
The absence of a prohibition from the copyright holder on the use of objects is not considered consent (permission) - this is regulated by Article 1229 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
What you post on your page, for example, photos of which you are the author, or your stories, is nothing more than bringing to public attention - one of the ways to use the work to which you, as the copyright holder, have full rights in accordance with Art. 1270 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
And finally, let me remind you that, just like copyright objects, your personal data is also already protected without your participation. The procedure for using personal data is regulated by Federal Law No. 152-FZ of July 27, 2006 “On Personal Data”.
The same applies to correspondence, which is guaranteed confidential by Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, without any additional statements on your part.
So, friends, don’t be fooled by stupid tricks and don’t fill your timeline and your friends’ heads with all sorts of nonsense. Better subscribe to useful news. I hope that each of you who have read this material, in order to avoid getting into such stupid situations, will go