I'm running the website UFparty.com and I've got a few legal-type of questions if anyone can answer them. Basically, what we do is go around to parties, take pictures, post them up, etc. Basically, we have a section of the site called "How Many Beers" and we've had one girl come to us and ask to be taken off of it because of her sorority affiliation. We did so and it wasn't a big deal. But what I want to know is what exactly are the rights to doing something like this? We have the camera in plain view, we tell the participants that we are putting the pictures on the website, and we accept a verbal consent on their part that is it ok with them to take and post the pictures. However, we don't always tell them in what context we are going to post them ie. How Many Beers. If someone wanted to be taken off the webpage after verbally consenting and we didn't want to take them off is there any kind of legal action they can take against us? What would be our rights and defenses? I'm hoping we never get into such situations, but I'd like to know the information before any mistakes are made.
I guess there aren't too many zoology classes at the University of Florida...That's a CROCODILE, not a gator!
Hmmm...I was sure Clutch would know, considering all the mumbo-jumbo he had to go through with the NBA.
This has more to do with public display of a person's image than the website itself. If I am not mistaken, anyone whose picture is posted publically can request that it is removed because, technically, the person who owns the photo does not own the image. The example was given to me once of the picture of a sports team. You may own the photo you took of the team, but the image in that photo is technically the property of the league or whoever owns the rights to that team's licensing. In the case of individuals, if you do not ask them and then post something that they don't want posted, they could take legal action against you because you did not get a consent form signed by them. Since you do not make money, however, there is less of an issue. Personally, if I were you, I'd go down to your college's law department and consult a professor.
Ok, I took a look over your site and, yeah, if you don't tell them they will be rated on the How Many Beers scale, you could get in deep **** if some girl gets upset about it. And, frankly, you deserve it if you don't tell them. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY NOT THEIRS, to get full and authorized consent and verbal will NOT do it. In addition to it, looking at your site I could see that you could get into some issues with the University as well. Imagine if you took a pic of the daughter of one of the board of regents, for example. This could get you reprimanded or even expelled by the university nevermind the potential lawsuit for depicting life at UF in a way they may not want. I'd seriously be careful about this concept. Girls Gone Wild got the crap sued out of them originally for not getting PROPER release forms let alone just getting verbal consent. I know you aren't showing them naked or making money, but it still could piss someone off enough to get you in trouble. At least one of the GGW ladies didn't even sue for money, just to get them in trouble and get her off of the video. So, be extremely cautious.
