My Daughter Is Famous … Sort of

So I was on the phone with my mom looking for a place to celebrate Seth’s 8th birthday when it struck me that CrackerJax might be the right choice.

The place has miniature golf, go-karts, video games, lousy food, etc. So I go to the website when suddenly a photo of two kids driving go-karts pops up.

Cue double take: Hey, my daughter, Lael, is driving that yellow go-kart! (The photo is actually used twice, once in the flash banner and then again at the bottom of this page.)

So who else thinks we should get free lifetime passes?

Comments

[MECU]

You have a good chance of getting some compensation, since they posted pictures of your child without your permission on their website which is illegal. You can at least demand they take down the image. Be willing to "make a deal" and offer them to continue to use the image for free lifetime passes for your family (be specific: you, wife, kid(s)). If you're bold enough, threaten "legal action" for "past damages" and you could get free day passes at the least if it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Be sure to talk to a manager; employees can't negotiate any such deals.

IANAL. It is actually illegal to post images of child(ren) online without parental permission. Especially in an identifiable manor.

[AJ]

Shooting photos of anyone in a public place while you are also on public property is almost never illegal. There is not a reasonable expectation of privacy.

IANAL as well, but I also believe it's not so clean an issue when the photos are taken at a business and are used in a commercial manner. A key issue can be whether you were aware the photographer and how the images were going to be used, e.g., you may have provided implied consent.

That said, if I were them and you came at me demanding compensation, I'd remove the photo, slap up a new photo with new kids (this time asking parental consent -- most parents would be flattered) and be done with it. If you still wanted compensation, I'd tell you to go pound sand. Any benefit I got from your photo and any harm you feel was inflicted upon you probably wouldn't even cover the cost of having me served with court papers.

I'd chalk this up to the photographer and/or the business not being versed in the law. It doesn't sound like you're upset, but if you are, ask for the photo to be removed and they'll probably do it.