Alright kiddos, lets get this out of the way: do not be fooled into thinking that just because a piece of work, like a picture, is put in the public arena that it is fair game and without merit of a copyright. Since January 1, 1978 when you produce something (like a photo) it is under automatic copyright protection. Also on his side: he can register a copyright with the gov't, as extra proof of ownership, up to 5 years after the publication of his images (say, on facebook), so he can fight someone in court. As a matter of fact, if he registers the images within the first 3 months of putting the images out there, the image snatcher can be made to pay the attorney fees of the plaintiff.
Sorry guys... Baez has a legitimate gripe in this fight...
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf
The problem is every time he logs into FB he is "signing" a contract (TOS) that allows for the public use of his photos based on his privacy settings. In the FB tos it states very clearly that others may use material posted on your FB if you have it set to "everyone". FB then goes on to state that tools are provided to you to protect your copyrighted material. Those "tools" are the privacy settings. So by having his privacy settings set to everyone JB would be placing the material into public domain with out copyright protection based on the TOS for FB.
This has actually been a big gripe with FB for a long time and is rather well known.
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php?ref=pf
Some samplings from the TOS:
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.
When you publish content or information using the "everyone" setting, it means that you are
allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook,
to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture).
We will provide you with tools to help you protect your intellectual property rights. (
this is the privacy settings)
So in essence JB has given permission for his pictures to be used by the way he set his privacy settings. He will lose this civil suite IMHO.
