You Own the Video Your Smart Glasses Shoot, Not Meta
But owning the copyright is not the same as being allowed to post it
The moment your glasses save a clip, the copyright in it is yours, automatically, as its author. Meta's terms take a licence to use what you share, not ownership of it. Holding that copyright is a right against copying, not a permission slip to publish footage of the people you filmed.
How it started
copyright was built to vest in an author the instant a work is fixed
US law hands copyright to the maker without a form to fill in. Title 17 says protection "subsists" in a work of authorship the moment it is "fixed" (17 U.S.C. 102), and that it "vests initially in the author" (17 U.S.C. 201). A work is "created," the statute adds, "when it is fixed ... for the first time."
Britain wrote the same rule. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 the "author" is "the person who creates" a work (s.9), and "the author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it" (s.11). The model in everyone's mind was a photographer choosing a shot, which is where the Supreme Court placed the right back in 1884.
What changed since
the author became a person tapping a temple, and a platform wrote itself a licence
The camera moved onto a Ray-Ban frame, and the "author" is now whoever taps the temple or says "take a video." The creative choice that copyright rewards has shrunk to pressing a button on a face.
The file also travels differently. It routes through Meta's app, and Meta's Terms of Service take a broad licence over anything you "share, post, or upload." That single clause is where most of the confusion about who owns a glasses recording actually lives.
Where it stands now
the copyright is yours, Meta's is a licence, and neither is a permission to publish
You are the first owner of the copyright in what your glasses record. It exists the instant the clip is fixed, with no registration, and in the US it lasts the author's life plus 70 years (17 U.S.C. 302). Meta does not own it: its terms grant a "non-exclusive ... licence," not an assignment, and only over content you share or upload.
What none of that gives you is the right to publish footage of a stranger. That turns on their consent and privacy, which is a separate question from who owns the file. And if the glasses are your employer's and you film on the job, the copyright may be the employer's from the start (17 U.S.C. 201; CDPA s.11).
What happens next
nothing is scheduled to move ownership, and one edge stays unsettled
No statute or court ruling is on the calendar that would shift copyright in a glasses recording away from the wearer. Ownership is settled, stable law.
The open edge, which no court has decided for smart glasses, is whether a hands-free, near-automatic capture carries enough human authorship to be a copyrighted "work" at all. The 1884 rule requires a human's creative choice, and nothing is scheduled to test how little of it a tap-to-record clip has.
Sources and verification
- 17 U.S.C. § 102 — Subject matter of copyright: a work is protected once "fixed in any tangible medium," and the categories include "motion pictures and other audiovisual works."
- 17 U.S.C. § 101 — Definitions: a work is "created" when first fixed; the definition of "work made for hire."
- 17 U.S.C. § 106 — Exclusive rights in copyrighted works: what ownership consists of — reproduce, adapt, distribute, perform, display.
- 17 U.S.C. § 201 — Ownership of copyright: copyright "vests initially in the author"; works made for hire are owned by the employer.
- 17 U.S.C. § 302 — Duration of copyright: for a work created today by an individual, the author's life plus 70 years (US).
- Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53 (1884): copyright covers works "so far as they are representatives of original intellectual conceptions of the author" — the human-authorship requirement.
- Meta / Facebook Terms of Service — "Permission to use content you create and share": the verbatim licence grant, "non-exclusive ... licence," triggered by "share, post, or upload," ending when content is deleted.
- Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.9 — Authorship of work: the author is "the person who creates" the work; for a film, the producer and principal director.
- Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.11 — First ownership of copyright: the author is first owner; an employee's work in the course of employment is owned by the employer.
- Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.16 — The acts restricted by copyright: the exclusive rights a UK owner holds.