Does sharing photos on Facebook mean publishing them?

[anais]

I'm going to use my photos and they shouldn't have been published before. If I have previously uploaded them on Facebook, is there any problem?

[Eric Lefebvre]

Yes ... by putting them on facebook, not only are they technically published but you've also given facebook the right to make use of those images (in a limited fashion).

source: http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

"For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it."

Now, they NEED those permissions to be able to serve your content to your visitors but the wording is loose enough for them to be able to do other things with it. The "sub-licensable" clause means they can also re-liscence your content to third parties.

[Briar]

Publishing means placing in the public domain.
Facebook is the public domain so they have been published