Virgin Mobile is being sued by woman who says that a photo of her daughter was taken from a photo-sharing site and used in an ad campaign without permission. The photographer is also suing, claiming he was not warned that his photo could be used in ads.

The photo shows 16-year-old Texas resident Alison Chang making a two-fingered peace sign. Her youth counsellor, Justin Wong, took the photo and uploaded it to photo-sharing site Flickr. According to the lawsuit, Alison only became aware of the photo's use in Virgin Mobile adverts when alerted by a friend. Superimposed on the photo of Alison was the slogan "Dump your pen friend." The advert also included the words: "Free text Virgin to Virgin."

Wong has joined Alison's mother, Susan Chang, in suing Virgin Mobile Australia, Virgin Mobile USA and also the Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit group that offers various forms of copyright licence for use by anyone wishing to license their copyright-protected works to others.

The lawsuit, filed in Dallas County District Court, Texas, claims the "unathorised and exploitative" use of the photo on billboard, website and newspaper ads invaded Alison's privacy, causing humiliation, embarrassment, frustration and grief. It adds that the publication of the image with the slogan "Dump your pen friend" is libelous.

The lawsuit also claims that the Creative Commons Corporation failed adequately to educate and warn Wong about the meaning of the licence he had chosen.

By default, images added to Flickr cannot be reused by third parties, even if they are made visible to all users. They are marked as "All rights reserved." However, Flickr makes it easy to choose one of six Creative Commons licences.

Read complete news on http://www.out-law.com/page-8494

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Last update : 05-11-2007 11:16

Keywords : Virgin Mobile, Lawsuit, Flickr image