Hey gang, I wanted to get another opinion, and since most of you (okay, all of you) really don't know me, I figured your opinions would be completely unbiased. Here's the deal. A few weeks ago my wife and I took our kids to a local photo studio to get pictures done. Our daughter was 2 and a half, and our son was about 3 weeks old. Long story short, the pictures were awful. We had paid a $25 sitting fee, and the pics stunk. We didn't order any, as the proofs were crappy, and the studio never called us for a follow up. If any of our friends with kids ask about the studio, we tell them how bad our pictures were. The senior pictures they take of our high schoolers, however, aren't that bad. Anyway, my wife was talking to another daycare mom, and the mom told my wife that she had heard numerous people say how bad the studio was. Then she casually mentioned that she saw our kids on the studio's webpage. Sure enough, I looked tonight and our two kids are pictured in their gallery. I'm no legal eagle by any means, but I'm pretty sure they should've had us sign a waiver to put up pictures of minors on their website. Honestly, I'm not really worried about having pics of them up online as we've plastered them all over our Facebook pages, but I'm kinda peeved that the studio is using our kids as examples. Should I even be upset about this? Should I tell them to take them down? Should we sue? Should I bring a baseball bat? What are your thoughts on this? Are they required to have us sign a waiver, or did I just dream that up? I'm not sure if I'm upset because they're using the kids without our permission, or if I'm still just ticked because the pictures weren't great. Anyway, I'd appreciate your thoughts on this. -Matt
I vote baseball bat. Or, if I was pretending to be civilized for the sake of impressing people on the internet, I would sue them until they no longer had money to bleed or at least until you came across a solitary scruple. Alternate view: if your pictures were bad, then the ultimate revenge would be to let them use those pictures in their advertising. It is an unbelievably efficient scheme, since it requires you to do absolutely nothing to make it happen!
Hi Matt - If you're sure that you never signed anything that allowed them to use your pictures (maybe in the fine print?) then I'd contact them in writing and politely ask them to take down the pictures of your kids. It usually works. I am lucky enough to have a friend who's an attorney and once I got her to send such a letter on her professional letterhead. Instant results! If you have such a friend then you might consider that option too.
Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I don't have a lawyer friend handy. I'm pretty sure there was no fine print because we didn't sign anything. We just paid the $25 bucks for the sitting fee. I know I shouldn't be so ticked about this, but for some reason I am. I guess I just don't like the idea of someone using my kids as an example without my okay. I might end up just sending an email to the folks and see what they do. I wouldn't want to get nasty, but I'd be fully prepared to do so if need be. -Matt
I would be more than a little angry if I was in your place so don't be upset about being upset. Sending an email is being nice. I'm not always that nice.:firedevil: I have a tendency to drop a small nuclear device and ask questions later.
I believe that generally, photographers own the rights to the photos they take. This page from the US Copyright Office backs that:
I'm not concerned with copyright. I'm focusing on the use of the pictures. Because the subjects of the pictures are minors, I'm almost positive they have to have our permission to use the pictures. -Matt
Copyright-schmopyright. Here's what you do. Call, and nicely ask the owner/manager/anyone other than the phone-answering girl to please remove your children's photos from their website and promotional material before end of business today. They probably will. It's a courtesy to be friendly and polite with your customers, perhaps they will be with you. If not, if they are snotty, if they tell you they own the rights, if they tell you you are overreacting, if they tell you anything other than yes...calmly and assertively ask them again, telling them that you don't want to escalate the situation unless they force you to. If more stonewall, you can explain to them that they just became your hobby. This issue is now your obsession. And then, it's on.
It is certainly unethical in my opinion for them to post these pictures without your consent. I suggest sending them a letter with your request and send it certified mail to the owner of the business. If no response try contacting your local newspaper or TV station.
There are several ways to approach this. I think the approach of calling them and asking nicely for the pics to be taken down is the first step. If they don't, here are several different approaches. -- You might consider emailing [email protected] with your story. Anything like this that gets posted on Consumerist (owned by the same nonprofit that owns Consumer Reports) creates a shitstorm of bad publicity for the organization mentioned. -- I'd take the approach that the $25 sitting fee (if you did not sign anything) makes it a work-for-hire transaction, meaning you own the copyright. This wouldn't stand up in court, but likely it won't need to for what I'm proposing. If you take the position that you own the copyright, then you can send a DMCA takedown notice to their webhost. This is a legal document that *requires* the webhost to remove copyrighted material from a website upon demand from the copyright holder, under the threat of pretty large financial penalties. (if you want to do this, send me a PM and I'll send you a template DMCA complaint letter. If you tell me the website, I'll also tell you what email address to use to reach the host and get the DMCA complaint to the right person.) This will work about 99.9% of the time, and I seriously doubt that the studio will know how to file a DMCA counterclaim to get it put back up (the only way they could do that after a takedown notice.) -- If it's part of a national chain, or any sort of national marketing organization, you could complain to them. But honestly, the DMCA is fast, efficient, and works nearly always. SO that's the route I'd go if they don't remove the content quickly after your first request.
mattbrent: "Unfortunately, I don't have a lawyer friend handy..." One of the things I learned from a great book . . . no, wait, I wrote that book** . . . is to write the polite but firm letter, and at the bottom, you add: "Copy to Attorney Thomas Masterson" . . . who need not even exist. Or pick a name from the Yellow Pages. _________ ** "Send This Jerk the Bedbug Letter: how corporations, politicians and the media deal with complaint letters, and how to be a better complainer," John Bear, Ten Speed Press (a division of Random House).
