Question about placing an ad without consent

[DVC Jen]

I went to have my hair done today and my stylist told me she had seen an ad the dance school placed in one of those penny saver type things. She said she say Emilys (my youngest daughter) photo in it.

I hadn't seen the ad so I asked her to describe the costume to me - and sure enough - I was the lyrical team photo.

I was SHOCKED to say the least. Never were we approached about giving permission for our daughters image to be used in their ad. So I am sure if we weren't no one else was either.

Was that legal? I know as a photographer you can not use someones likeness for advertising purposes without a signed model release. This was not the photographer placing the ad - but the dance school.

Wouldn't they also need to get permission? All of the girls in the photos are under the age of 18 - so I am doubly shocked.

If they would have asked - I would have given permission - I do like the dance studio owners - however, being asked would have been nice at the very least.

 

[YesDear]

Not an attorney but I agree with you they should have asked. Probably you are dealing with someone that either is unaware of the issue or just naive. I bet if you ask they will say something like, "I thought she would be proud to be in the picture!"

Would I do something about it? I would probably gently tell them they should get permission the next time.

 

[MassJester]

I am an attorney, and they definitely should have obtained your permission first. However like the PP, I would just point out to them gently that they have behaved inappropriately.

 

[Amy]

Is it possible that when you enrolled your DD in the dance school that you signed a photo release along with all the other papers?

 

[DVC Jen]

Is it possible that when you enrolled your DD in the dance school that you signed a photo release along with all the other papers?

nope - didn't sign anything like that.

i really am just more annoyed at not being informed - and asked for permission than anything else.

these teachers are very very nice - would never do anything to intentionally hurt one of the kids - but they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

I sincerely hope their ignorance doesn't come back to bite them at some point.

 

[jann1033]

nope - didn't sign anything like that.

i really am just more annoyed at not being informed - and asked for permission than anything else.

these teachers are very very nice - would never do anything to intentionally hurt one of the kids - but they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

I sincerely hope their ignorance doesn't come back to bite them at some point.

lights are on but no one's home huh.. i can see if it were a newspaper report of the recital or something but an ad, seems like they could have at least mentioned it since they probably had a while before they had to send it in and finalize it...

 

[dburg30]

Well since it seems that you like this place, as others have stated, I would just gently point out that what they did was not right, and that you'd appreciate that you be contacted next time.

 

[MICKEY88]

I've seen that happen quite often with dance studios, though they would be quite upset if someone stole their choreography, they have no clue about photo usage or copyright,


about 20 years ago, I took pictures of one of Hersheyparks shows, two of the daughters of our local dance studio's owner were in the show, I gave them free 4x6s, a few weeks later I got a phone call from my younger sister telling me to check the local paper, she was certain that the dozen pictures used in the article about the 2 sisters, were my pictures.... sure enough they were, I contacted the studio and the newspaper, the paper apologized and printed a photo credit the next day, I explained to the studio owner, the error in her ways...

fast forward to a month or so ago, due to a family emergency I was asked to take my 2 young nieces to dance class, imagine my surprise when I walked into the studio and discovered that 6 of my 4x6s had been turned into 20x30 poster sized prints and were now hanging in the studio

 

[DVC Jen]

I've seen that happen quite often with dance studios, though they would be quite upset if someone stole their choreography, they have no clue about photo usage or copyright,


about 20 years ago, I took pictures of one of Hersheyparks shows, two of the daughters of our local dance studio's owner were in the show, I gave them free 4x6s, a few weeks later I got a phone call from my younger sister telling me to check the local paper, she was certain that the dozen pictures used in the article about the 2 sisters, were my pictures.... sure enough they were, I contacted the studio and the newspaper, the paper apologized and printed a photo credit the next day, I explained to the studio owner, the error in her ways...

fast forward to a month or so ago, due to a family emergency I was asked to take my 2 young nieces to dance class, imagine my surprise when I walked into the studio and discovered that 6 of my 4x6s had been turned into 20x30 poster sized prints and were now hanging in the studio

did you say anything?


We do like this dance studio. Emily is in the beginning of her 13th year there. I think the next time I see one of the owners/teachers I will very nicely tell her that using a child - or anyones image with their consent for advertising purposes is against the law. And that while I understand they more than likely did not know this - therefore I am not *mad* at them - they may want to be more aware in the future - for their own sake.

We had an issue with them last winter when one of the assistant teachers made a comment to another student that emily heard - and became quite upset about. Em was ready to quit. We had a few meetings with the two owners/teachers as well as the assistant teacher (an owners daughter) about what was said. One thing that I am still amazed about - during these meetings one of the owners mentioned an issue she had with another student - and she without thinking - said NAMES of these other students. Now I taught preschool for 11 years and this is one thing you just do not do.

I mentioned to her that i thought it was extremely unprofessional - and if I found out she was using my daughter as an example of poor behavior and or judgement - and actually saying her name - well - I am sure you can picture what would happen.

She was totally confused and defensive as to why that is so wrong. So like I said - they are nice people - and I firmly believe they would never really do something to take advantage of or harm their students - they are just - well to put it nicely - uninformed.

At first when my stylist told me she saw ems photo in the ad - i thought they had taken the photos i had taken of emily and part if not all of the ad i created for the dance recital program and used it.

That I would not be forgiving about and Emily would have had the next 3 years of dance for free to repay me - or else I would have seen them in court.

hmmmm...... using em without permission ... free dance for 3 years.... hmmmmmmm


just kidding!

 

[MICKEY88]

did you say anything?

No I didn't,

I was wrong in my last post... I only took one niece to dance, the reason being her younger sister age 7 was at the hospital undergoing tests because she was unable to walk and was crying because she was in such pain..

although I really wanted to say something I figured my older niece was upset enough, without me stirring anything up at the studio, at the moment my concern for both nieces took priority

 

[DVC Jen]

No I didn't,

I was wrong in my last post... I only took one niece to dance, the reason being her younger sister age 7 was at the hospital undergoing tests because she was unable to walk and was crying because she was in such pain..

although I really wanted to say something I figured my older niece was upset enough, without me stirring anything up at the studio, at the moment my concern for both nieces took priority

i can totally understand that.

 

[MontanaZoo]

I think the PP's are right and you should gently try and correct them and make them go down the right path.

At the zoo that I volunteer at, I've been educating them and we are extremely careful not to publicize pictures of any children (well, any recognizable faces) on our website (which I run) or in any advertising. I'm their main photographer so I pretty much have control over what pictures I'll let them use.

Here's one of the reasons (besides legal ones) that we're so careful. One of my friends adopted her foster daughter and when the mother got out of prison, she was stalking her daughter to kidnap her. She didn't actually know where they were living at the time, just the town. My friend would have been horrified if her daughter's picture was taken without her permission and used in something like that.

So, if someone new at the zoo questions me on it, I use that as an example to show how much damage something like that can do when they use a photo without parental/model permission.