Legal Question...

[masdog]

Alright, folks. Get your thinking caps out. I have a rather tough question for you.

Every year, my Fraternity puts on a Halloween Fest for the children in the local community that benefits the Arthritis Foundation. This year, our advisor, who works for Telemundo in Milwaukee, has managed to get us commercial ad space on CBS.

We need to put an ad together, and they want to use some photos that I shot at the event over the last two years. I have no problem with using the images in the commercial, but do I need model waiver releases to use these pictures? Many contain children in them while at the event, but I am worried I do not have the rights to put the photo on TV.

[Michael Fanelli]

Alright, folks. Get your thinking caps out. I have a rather tough question for you.

Every year, my Fraternity puts on a Halloween Fest for the children in the local community that benefits the Arthritis Foundation. This year, our advisor, who works for Telemundo in Milwaukee, has managed to get us commercial ad space on CBS.

We need to put an ad together, and they want to use some photos that I shot at the event over the last two years. I have no problem with using the images in the commercial, but do I need model waiver releases to use these pictures? Many contain children in them while at the event, but I am worried I do not have the rights to put the photo on TV.

Dealing with childrem is getting harder every day. Don't ask for legal advice here, get a lawyer to spend an hour with you to make very sure.

[another view]

This recent thread is sort-of along the same lines. I'd agree that seeing a lawyer familiar with copyright issues is the best idea.

[masdog]

Lawyers aren't cheap, and unfortunately, the fraternity nor myself have the cash to get a consultation. Time is a factor too.

I just need a general answer of whether I can use pictures I took of kids. I'm pretty sure that I can't, or shouldn't, simply because they will be used for commercial reasons and there are children in the photos.

[opus]

is there *any* way to track down some of the children so that you can use at least one or two of your photos?

I wouldn't proceed without model releases.

Are there any lawyers working at CBS that you could contact with your question? CBS would want to protect itself too, so I'll bet they even have some guidelines listed somewhere.

I'm wondering if a local school or university faculty member might be valuable for a consultation too. Does Moraine Park or UW or Marian College have a TV or photography track? Or you could call up MATC downtown Milwaukee and ask their TV department. *Someone* will have an educated opinion, I'm sure.

[masdog]

Thank you for the honest answer, Kelly, but in the mean time, I decided not to allow them to use my pictures. As some of these pictures were taken a few years ago, I have no way of contacting anyone since they were walk-ins from the local community. It pissed a few people off, but they'll have to deal with it.

Marian doesn't have a TV track. They barely have a journalism track.

One of the guys in my fraternity has a father who is a former US District Attorney and has many local legal contacts. The kid called a lawyer, but since we didn't have anything posted that pictures at the event might be used for advertising purposes and since there was no way to get in touch with people who aren't affiliated with the group, he understands that I am just trying to protect myself.

[dmm96452]

Never mind. Didn't notice the dates on the thread.

[Ronnoco]

Alright, folks. Get your thinking caps out. I have a rather tough question for you.

Every year, my Fraternity puts on a Halloween Fest for the children in the local community that benefits the Arthritis Foundation. This year, our advisor, who works for Telemundo in Milwaukee, has managed to get us commercial ad space on CBS.

We need to put an ad together, and they want to use some photos that I shot at the event over the last two years. I have no problem with using the images in the commercial, but do I need model waiver releases to use these pictures? Many contain children in them while at the event, but I am worried I do not have the rights to put the photo on TV.

A few important questions. Was it a public event? Was everyone aware by sign or otherwise that it benefitted the Arthritis Foundation? Were these basically group photos of more than one child at a time or did you center in very closely on a single individual?

The television station would likely have gone with these photos without releases given the nature of the event. The law revolves around reasonable expectations. At a public event there is no reasonable expectation of privacy and given the nature of this particular event there was a reasonable expectation that photos would be taken and used in a news or public relations context related to the Arthritis Foundation. This is also not a model situation either.

Ronnoco