WAY OT: MGoBlog ad
The lowermybills.com ad comes up on the left side of the blog ... has the picture of the smiling blonde girl.. i know this girl and the picture is from her facebook profile.. so i ask can someone just snatch your pic and use it on a ad ? because im certain she did not give permission
January 13th, 2011 at 11:05 AM ^
I am pretty sure you cannot use someone's "likeness" without their express permission. Of course, the real questions is whether she has been damaged in any way that would give rise to a lawsuit. I would guess that she might have a claim but that she would be unable to prove any damages. The best thing to do would be to contact the company and demand that they remove her likeness from their ads.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:22 AM ^
R u kiddin me?
January 13th, 2011 at 11:24 AM ^
Clever
January 13th, 2011 at 11:32 AM ^
She wouldnt need to show damages if there are statutory damages allowed (which could be the case)
January 13th, 2011 at 1:11 PM ^
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_laws_of_the_United_States
Look under the "appropriation" heading.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:05 AM ^
Um FIRE RICH ROD
Also isn't there someone else you could have asked about this problem?
January 13th, 2011 at 11:28 AM ^
your pic is a bad snatch - I don't think you have permission to use it so you had better take it off
January 13th, 2011 at 11:31 AM ^
Rich Rod is not to blame here. This whole Facebook image issue is Brandon's fault!
January 13th, 2011 at 11:10 AM ^
so i ask can someone just snatch your pic and use it on a ad ?
No, she should be contacting the ad agency and asking them to remove it.
edit: also, I see OT season has begun.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:11 AM ^
terms that they have the right to "sell" your pictures for use in other people's ads. It may just be an uncheck the box thing with FB as well. Either way, your friend should email the lowermybills and facebook people and ask for it to be removed.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:15 AM ^
IANAL, can anybody else confirm/deny this? Disclaiming ownership of your person by posting a picture on facebook would seem like a likeness-rights lawsuit waiting to happen.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:42 AM ^
Is slippery-- and they are certainly poised to do great evil-- but they do not use people's posted material in this way. See full explanation below.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^
And you will not have page ads.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:16 AM ^
love Chrome
January 13th, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^
If you don't click on the ads you're limiting MGoRevenue.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:25 AM ^
with Adblock Plus and NoScript addons.
Me see no ads.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:16 AM ^
I had a friend post some of her photography from her studio on her facebook page and they snatched one of her shots. It ended up in an ad for some going back to school ad. She learned that lesson hard because she cant really sell that image anymore.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
She should have put a big watermark on it. Lesson learned.
Although, and maybe some of the MGoLawyers can answer, aren't artistic works copyrighted, especially if she owns a studio and by someone stealing it, they are violating copyright laws?
January 13th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^
photographers shouldn't post their work on facebook. Ever. Post it on your own website and post only links on facebook. Why photographers trust facebook with crucial business assets like photographs is beyond me.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:24 AM ^
The browser is using your cached history on your comouter to display ads for items it thinks you'd be interested in purchasing. For example, I was looking at a new pair of shoes, so I am bombarded with shoe ads from buy.com and shoe.com (or something like that).
Could be you are the only one who sees that picture. I could also be way off base. Either way, don't think it's legal.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:25 AM ^
I hate when you click and no response only to click again and double post..arg!
January 13th, 2011 at 11:31 AM ^
because smiling blonde girls are NOT a good way to lower your bills.
Women always increase your bills - this is a FACT.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:34 AM ^
and blood-flow.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^
... my guess is that the creatives (using the term loosely) who did the LowerMyBills ad-- they may have been in house or cheap subcontractor-- just pulled your friend's picture because it didn't cost them anything to use. It's possible it was an honest mistake b/c sometimes unlicensed images show up on free stock photo sites and are tagged as "public domain." But most likely they knew it wasn't licensed and just didn't give a crap b/c people rarely complain.
Facebook's privacy policy is purposefully Inception-esque but, despite retaining some right to use material posted, they don't have any history of taking user's material and selling/renting to other companies. The one exception to this comes within Facebook's pages, where they will stick your friends' (who don't have privacy settings properly adjusted) photos in ads directed at you like: "These friends have all signed up for free lobotomies-- don't get left out of the fun!"
My advice is to have your friend contact LowerMyBills and explain the situ. They should resolve it ASAP. If they don't, get a lawyer and make some money of the pricks.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:44 AM ^
There is a really easy way to prevent this... don't post public pictures of yourself on the internet. pow.
If I ruled the world, people dumb enough to put a picture of themselves in a public domain like that would get what they deserve, like their pic being posted in a random ad without their permission. But I don't, and she will probably win a lawsuit.
January 13th, 2011 at 12:42 PM ^
Well, now I am hitting F5 for an entirely different reason...