Can your daughters picture at a car wash be used for an ad campaign?
Creative commons will be put to test as will our interconnected world.A Dallas Family is suing Virgin Mobile's Australian ad campaign for inappropriately using a picture of their daughter snapped at a church car wash.
The picture of 16-year-old Chang flashing a peace sign was taken at an April church car wash by Alison's youth counselor, who posted it that day on his Flickr page, according to Alison's brother, Damon. In the ad, Virgin Mobile printed one of its campaign slogans, "Dump your pen friend," over Alison's picture.
The ad also says "Free text virgin to virgin" at the bottom.
The experience damaged Alison's reputation and exposed her to ridicule from her peers and scrutiny from people who can now Google her, the family charged in the lawsuit.
This is a case study we will be using in my classes to talk about creative commons, ethics, and proper copyright. And if you follow the discussion over on Flickr about this -- you can see the light dawning about what creative commons really means. This was cited as "attribution only" but since the photographer wasn't attributed, the family seems to be using that argument.
And, in this case, the photographer also didn't have the permission of the girl -- or did he? -- should she have been considered "talent" and compensated?
Sometimes things happen that cause us to scratch our heads and say -- Hmmm?
Breaking News-- I have also found a Flickr group discussing other images that are being used in this campaign.
tag: creativecommons, creative commons, licensing, copyright, Virgin Mobile, court case, education, teaching, Flickr, case studies, ethics
