Since Facebook images are royalty-free and non-exclusive, does that mean I can use them in a blog?

[Romy]

Copy & Pasted from Facebook Terms of Service

"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). "

Does that mean if I wanted to use a picture of Leah Michele, for example, for a blog post (Not for commercial use or distribution of any kind), could I go to her Facebook page and grab one from her photos? Could I use them if I cited my source and provided a link to her timeline?

[Ben]

No. Facebook has a worldwide non-exclusive royalty-free worldwide license to use those images. You do not. You'd need permission from either Leah Michele or Facebook (since Facebook has a sub-licensable license) to use those photos. Linking back to the source never absolves you of copyright infringement. And when you use a photo in a blog post, you absolutely are distributing it- you're sending a copy of the picture to every one of your readers.

That being said, you probably won't be sued for using a picture from Facebook in a blog post. Worst thing that would happen is that you'd get a letter from a law firm representing her telling you to take it down.

[Belovedfamily586]

No. What the terms of service are saying is that any pictures that anyone puts on Facebook, belong to Facebook. You are granting THEM a license to use them, but nowhere does it say that they are granting YOU a license.