Stock photos of people

[Erica C.]

I am designing a site for a friend. She found some photos that she'd like to include; the photos come from sites that she's sure had no copyright restrictions. The thing is, there are recognizable people in some of the photos. I am concerned that using pictures where people are recognizable could lead to legal problems.

Thanks for any thoughts on the matter.

Erica

[Andilinks]

I am concerned that using pictures where people are recognizable could lead to legal problems.IANAL but I play one on the Internet... If they are pictures taken in public while the people were out in public and the presentation doesn't demean or insult the people there's probably no problem. If the pictures were taken in some other circumstance it could get more complicated. But the likelihood of problems increases with the popularity and monetary success of the site. You risk people making spurious claims to get a cash settlement as a nuisance.

Andi

[johnfl68]

This is a great question, but I have heard all differnt kinds of answers. What I tend to hear the most is that online photo's are starting to be treated like print media, so you should have model release forms filled out for the people in the images. But depending on the site content may not be a concern if you know the people.

Here are some sites views on this:

http://www.asmp.org/commerce/legal/releases/

http://www.simslaw.com/model/model_releases.htm

http://www.baja.com/sensuousline/sline0799/mag4-6model_releases.shtml

If they are stock photos from a stock photo site (Getty Images, Adobe Stock Photos, etc.), typically this is already taken care of.

John

[sheila]

Based on John's post, it sounds like using one of the numerious very "cheap" or even "free" stock photos available at many web sites (where people can just upload their photos for you to then download) could eventually be problematic. I doubt there is good record for "stock photos" of this type to have model releases on file...?

[Erica C.]

Thanks, Andi, John and Shelia! This is all very helpful.

Now if only I could find the perfect picture of an overworked, unrecognizable person. :smile:

Erica