Forum: Photography


Subject: Legal question

doca opened this issue on May 03, 2003 ยท 6 posts


DHolman posted Sat, 03 May 2003 at 10:05 PM

In this shot, if taken in public, you have a right to sell the photo without any legal ramification. You could run into a problem if the photo was used to misrepresent the subject. For instance, if you sold this and someone put it into a publication with the heading "2 Prostitutes Making the Rounds" then you have a problem (actually, the person publishing it will have the problem, but you will be brought into the case as the photographer). As long as you don't misrepresent what is happening, then there should be no problem. Another example of misrepresenting would be if one of them had a coke bottle in her hand and it was used in a Coke ad. Then it makes it look like she is endorsing Coke and that is illegal without a signed release. As for the re-enactments, again if it is in public then you should have no problem. If it is private property, then you must get the permission of the owner of the property. It would also be safer to get a signed release from the re-enacters you photograph (if it's not a public area) or at least have the lawful representative of the group(s) involved sign a release. -=>Donald