ANALYSIS: Big Social Media Has a Major Say Over User IP Rights

In a court filing last week, Instagram sent a blunt message to anyone thinking of accusing it of facilitating infringement: You signed up for this. A close look at major social media platforms’ user terms shows that Instagram is not alone in acquiring broad content rights—and that’s unlikely to change.

Broad Terms Used as a Shield

In support of its (now successful) motion to dismiss a copyright class action filed in California, Instagram defended its eight-year-old web embedding feature by contending that users “licensed away” their rights. “Embedding” enables third parties to place code onto their websites to display ...