legality of taking pictures of people in public

[count of monte cristo]

if i see a person in public and take a picture of them, can i do anything i want with that photo?

[J. Falcon]

sure you can...

[IllTestYourGirls]

Ask a lawyer.

[marketsmart]

no you can not...

[Agent 488]

yes you can not.

[The Duck]

No, you cant.

[Agent 488]

taking upskirt photos of girls going up the escalator constitutes fair use (Rogers v. Koons, 960 F.2d 301 (2d Cir. 1992).

[stickyfingerz]

Not too many copyright attorneys in this thread so far. lol

[Jim_Gunn]

Originally Posted by budsbabes

taking upskirt photos of girls going up the escalator constitutes fair use (Rogers v. Koons, 960 F.2d 301 (2d Cir. 1992).

LOL, show that case to Gideon. That's a case that went against the artist Jeff Koons where the judge ruled against his claim of fair use by parody for a sculpture he created based on a photographer's work.

[hypedough]

Try it and see if anything happens.

[marketsmart]

Originally Posted by stickyfingerz

Not too many copyright attorneys in this thread so far. lol

why dont you enlighten us then since you are such an expert on all things..

and please tell everyone the difference between print and web publishing and cite cases that have been tested in court that support your comment..

after that, please distinguish between commercial use and personal use and also cite cases that show an example if the two being tested..

and finally, please let everyone know where you went to law school...

[klinton]

it's a matter of good manners somehow....

[DonovanTrent]

Originally Posted by Jim_Gunn

LOL, show that case to Gideon. That's a case that went against the artist Jeff Koons where the judge ruled against his claim of fair use by parody for a sculpture he created based on a photographer's work.

Just where IS Gideongallery anyway. You'd think the finest legal mind on GFY would be chiming in on this one. Though he'd just say that it's A-OK as long as you timeshift it and then superimpose a product placement into it and then put it through a tube into a torrent.

Or something like that.

[ronaldo]

I've had a little bit of experience with this but I'm also not a lawyer.

My understanding of these types of photos is such...

-You can use the photos IF you're not selling anything WITH the photos. For example, you can put them INSIDE a paid members area. The only recourse the person has is asking you to take them down, which you are not required to do if it was done in a public place and there was no "expected right to privacy".

-Once you put them on a TOUR and actually USE that photo TO sell a product, that person CAN come after you for money...unless they've signed a release form.

[Rangermoore]

Courts have found that individuals have a right to be protected from a third party's intrusion upon their seclusion; however, this right is not applicable when the image is captured from a public place. The mass distribution of an image can qualify as an intrusion upon seclusion tort and/or a public disclosure of private fact tort. However, the intrusion upon seclusion tort is not applicable because the individual was not in a private location, thereby excluding anyone who happened to be on public property. Similarly, the public disclosure of private facts torts is not applicable to the mass distribution of a image capture because the image may have newsworthy value.

http://www.law.com/jsp/law/LawArticl...=1202432521686

[woj]

Originally Posted by ronaldo

I've had a little bit of experience with this but I'm also not a lawyer.

My understanding of these types of photos is such...

-You can use the photos IF you're not selling anything WITH the photos. For example, you can put them INSIDE a paid members area. The only recourse the person has is asking you to take them down, which you are not required to do if it was done in a public place and there was no "expected right to privacy".

-Once you put them on a TOUR and actually USE that photo TO sell a product, that person CAN come after you for money...unless they've signed a release form.

sounds about right

[DVTimes]

In the UK the law states you can take pics of anyone in a public place.

But not in a private place.

Thus press take pics of who they want in public.

I am not sure if the laws are the same in the USA.

But even if in the USA you are alowed to take pics in a public place, make sure it is clased as a public place as certain places are not. Such as (I belive) a pop concert.

I belive (at least in the UK) police stations are clased as public and so tv crews are alowed to film criminals in them.

Though in the uk they have introduced terrisist laws, which has meant that they (police) can stop you filming where they want.

[Dirty Dane]

You can masturbate on it.

[stickyfingerz]

Originally Posted by marketsmart

why dont you enlighten us then since you are such an expert on all things..

and please tell everyone the difference between print and web publishing and cite cases that have been tested in court that support your comment..

after that, please distinguish between commercial use and personal use and also cite cases that show an example if the two being tested..

and finally, please let everyone know where you went to law school...

A. didn't say I was a lawyer.
B. I do tend to know quite a bit about copyright law with regards to both music and photography etc.
C. I don't need to cite cases.
D. The photographer owns all copyright to any photo he or she takes. Photos taken in a public place you may run the risk of stepping on local laws and could face fines and or jail time.
E. You can publish and use any photo you take in public but may be at risk of civil suit from the person in the pic, but very unlikely you would be sued.
F. Technically you cannot use the image of an identifiable person to make money without their written permission. You can bypass that by blurring out faces, not showing faces etc.
G. Privacy laws vary from state to state make sure to check your local laws before shooting in public.

Not sure what crawled up your butt as I didn't direct my comment towards you, and no one answered the question specifically, and there are many variables to the question. Not just NO.

Also there are many grey areas regarding who is able to use photos to report as newsworthy items and use that as a defense.

[CYF]

Photographer's rights pdf:

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

I carry one in my camera bag. No one's made an issue yet, but I typically don't take a lot of pics of strangers.

[mister_nobodie]

Originally Posted by count of monte cristo

if i see a person in public and take a picture of them, can i do anything i want with that photo?

you can do whatever you want until you're told not to.

but if you take a picture of your ex-girlfriend at the mall and publish it on a website with the words "im a whore, call me 999-999-9999" dont be surprised if you're told by a judge who is awarding her a cash settlement from it.

unless you can prove that she is in fact a whore, it doesnt matter if you make any money from the photo or not, she only needs one other person to claim they saw it and believed it.

even if she didnt actually suffer any damages from it, the judge can award her punitive damages.... punitive damages are meant to punish a person or entity, and the sky is the limit.

[rowan]

Originally Posted by ronaldo

I've had a little bit of experience with this but I'm also not a lawyer.

My understanding of these types of photos is such...

-You can use the photos IF you're not selling anything WITH the photos. For example, you can put them INSIDE a paid members area. The only recourse the person has is asking you to take them down, which you are not required to do if it was done in a public place and there was no "expected right to privacy".

-Once you put them on a TOUR and actually USE that photo TO sell a product, that person CAN come after you for money...unless they've signed a release form.

I would disagree with this. Even if the image isn't blatantly visible in marketing material it's something that is accessed by making a payment. The effective income from that one image could be miniscule, but it's part of a collection of images that generates the more substantial income. In general, if you make $ from someone's image without a release then you're probably wandering near or over the legal line.

Depending upon your part of the world there may also be other issues such as property releases, trademarks featuring prominently in the image, etc.

This assumes you want to be 100% clean... there are plenty of people who will skirt the law, it just depends how far you want to push it.

[Fucksakes]

I was at a beach party and suddenly a huge fight was about to start and I retardly took a couple pictures of the small crowd.. seconds later I didnt have my camera anymore and a few guys standing around me until the other guy was done deleting the pics and returning my camera.

[d-null]

didn't Maria Sharapova sue a photographer that took upskirt shots of her while she sat on a chair at a tennis match a few years ago? the pics were all over the net though

[d-null]

Originally Posted by d-null

didn't Maria Sharapova sue a photographer that took upskirt shots of her while she sat on a chair at a tennis match a few years ago? the pics were all over the net though

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/20..._shots_of.html

[CYF]

nice pic

[kane]

The way I understand it is if the person is in public or in a place where they cannot expect a reasonable expectation of privacy then you can take pics of them and use them for different things as long as they are directly used for marketing.

Here are a couple of examples.

Any of the millions of celeb pics taken every year of celebs walking down the street, on the beach and stuff like that. These are sold time and again and put on blogs and websites, magazines and TV shows that all generate revenue from them and the people in them have no recourse.

A few years back a woman sued girls gone wild. She was in the video and knew that was going to happen, but she was pissed when she ended up in the commercial and on the box cover. She actually won. By letting them film her she basically agreed to be in the video, but she hadn't agreed to let them use her image/likeness to market the video.

Anyway, I'm no lawyer, but that is a basic idea of how I understand things to work.

[rowan]

Originally Posted by Fucksakes

I was at a beach party and suddenly a huge fight was about to start and I retardly took a couple pictures of the small crowd.. seconds later I didnt have my camera anymore and a few guys standing around me until the other guy was done deleting the pics and returning my camera.

So why didn't you undelete them when you got home? :D

[Serial Pervert]

no..?

[Davy]

Depends on how many people are in the picture.

[sleazybunny]

Originally Posted by Fucksakes

I was at a beach party and suddenly a huge fight was about to start and I retardly took a couple pictures of the small crowd.. seconds later I didnt have my camera anymore and a few guys standing around me until the other guy was done deleting the pics and returning my camera.

Interesting..

Not sure where you are based, but as I understand it in the UK, even if you did take a picture on private property without their permission it's actually illegal/prohibited for the police to delete those pictures.

Happened to me and my brother in a club once. One of the security guys thought he saw a friend dealing drugs and started hassling her. We were a bit drunk, so my brother thought it's be funny to take a picture on his phone and also usefull "evidence". He got dragged off by security to a room, I went with him and got chucked out the club. I called the police cuz he was in a room by himself with about 8 security/bouncer type guys. The police came and had a word, he got chucked out the club. He said that most of the security guys were pretty cool except the dick who started the whole thing off. They couldn't work his phone cuz he'd switched all the language settings to Portugese, (he was moving to Brazil and it was our last nigh out together!). In the end, being the guy he is, he just deleted the pic for the guy. The girl who was supposedly dealing drugs also got dragged off and by the end of things apparently she had given them an earful and got a grovelling apology from the club manager that night. she got to stay in the club!!

</tangent>

Here's a good link though if you are in the UK:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...-search-police

[seeandsee]

Originally Posted by Dirty Dane

You can masturbate on it.

best answer :D

[Twistys Tim]

From my Pap days -- you can take a picture of anyone in public who does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy (unless you are in France).

[CIVMatt]

Amazing how many of you have no clue what you're talking about

[Scott McD]

Originally Posted by d-null

Sitting like that was only asking for pics to be taken...

[Actual Mike]

The long and the short of it is, if the person wants to make a go of it, they can sue you if you use their picture for anything that they (or courts) deem to harm, them in any way, be it physically, emotionally, monetarily, etc...
Also, remember if they are wearing any branded clothes or items, you can be sued over that as well (Nike swooshes, Adidas logos, etc...)
Getty Images has a useful help section for content submitters.

[pornlaw]

Originally Posted by count of monte cristo

if i see a person in public and take a picture of them, can i do anything i want with that photo?

The simple answer is no....

More facts are really needed before anyone can answer this question.

[Dirty Lord]

yes, no you cant our can i cant do.