This is a complicated matter. Sometimes I post rather controversial items, somewhat long for a post (but believe me, people READ it) but short for a blog item. I know I have stalkers, but my daughter just called my attention to this specific stalker who basically copies my posts to her fake profile and even to her “about me” section.

Besides the fact that this is creepy and I have just contacted a forensic psychiatrist for guidance, I’d like to know what legal rights I have over what I write on my profile and my page.

There must be some copyright guideline, but I couldn’t find it on facebook. Since many of you guys are professional experts on the subjects, I was hoping you could help me.

And yes, I am angry and scared. I know the woman, she is the mother of my daugher’s friend, she’s retired because of her alleged mental illness and she’s a pain in the a**.

I use facebook for my work and would like to get rid of fruitcakes like that. 

I am doing that at the option “this person is pretending to be someone else” and then “me”. There’s a box (finally) and I can even specify exactly which post, from which day, she copied as her “about me” material. It’s from September 13, 2012 (and there’s another smaller one she fished around that date). The forensic psychiatrist contacted me back instructing me to report her to the police. 

Actually the profile is part of the strategy (commercial): I’ve noticed that I have a much smaller overlap between followers of my profile and page. The page is about 5500 large and the profile, I keep at 4500 – I send a polite automatic reply to all who attempt to add me sending them to my page. 

I haven’t figured out exactly how to handle this: I am a sort of public figure here, so I believe the logic of most people is that they want the have the personal “thing” instead of the page. So I followed Amy Porterfield’s advice and introduced “personal” items on the page (the page sells my courses, consultancy, coaching, etc). These posts generate the most engagement. 

So my answer to you is that closing the profile would be commercially not advisable. The “witty” and controversial comments I allow myself on the profile, but never on the page, attract many people. These people, in turn, can be directed to the page and become potential clients. 

Look, for example, at what she copied to her “about me” section. It looks “cool”… : “Marilia Coutinho Copernicus, Galileo or Giordano Bruno? There is no way out: if your model confronts the status quo, the powers that be will react. Having produced a confrontational model itself is a contribution (to the Civilized world). The reaction to reactions is a combination of circumstance, option and personality. You may step back and quiet down. You may resist, then step back and right in the end tell everybody you still hold on to your original ideas. Or you can resist and be destroyed . Everybody who confronts publically will be strongly hostilized. My brother receives hate mails. Me too, plus digital bullying. But then what? There are three strategies. Well, I’m irreversibly out of the political and organizational institutional scene (in any field). But to make me stop thinking and writing, I’d have to be lobotomized. Or something.”

I did report the profile, I will follow your advice, but I wonder how legal that is. Actually, all the content belongs to Facebook. However, at least according to Brazilian laws (and the “perpetrator” is here, and so am I at this moment, and so is my IP), you never give up authorship rights. Even if I sell my copyrights, which I do when a publishing house buys my work, it is my right to have credits to my authorship whenever the content is reproduced. I’ll try…