Re: photos for web

There's another issue involved when it comes to our students. Their
privacy is protected to a higher degree than staff or faculty, and
apparently if you can recognize them in the photograph, that is
sufficient to require their permission to post pictures on the web.

We've run into this because we wanted to post geology field trip
pictures on the internet for everyone to enjoy, but three students
did not reply to our email request for permission, and because there
were so many group pictures, we ended up not posting anything. The
other students were very disappointed.

But I also have run into a situation that explained exactly why this
requirement is so important: we had a student who was a victim of a
stalker who had attacked her in the past, and it was very important
to her safety that she not have a recognizable photograph on-line for
him to track her down. (We ended up including her in research
photographs in very creative ways--shadowed or partial face, with the
focus on her hands, etc.)

It would be great for someone, say, Steve in Public Affairs (sorry,
Steve, but you seem to have the right contacts), to provide to the
rest of us--maybe on the Webnet page?--a really simple "request for
your (student) permission to publish photograph." Nobody proposes to
make money. I assume that the copyright ostensibly remains with UC
Berkeley in most cases. One should be able to construct a very
simple SHORT permission form, and there are attorneys who will work
hard to achieve that goal.

But just to assure students that we do consider their privacy is very
important.

- Marilyn

PS We have some absolutely fabulous photographs of students in labs
and field, but very few official undergrad permissions. Grad
students are easy. Sigh.

At 4:10 PM -0700 6/21/06, Rob Johnson wrote:
>Thanks for the plug, Aron :-)
>
>Regarding the need for a Model Release, I've always gone by the
>assumption that these two factors are important:
>
> * Are you going to make money with the picture?
>
> * Is there one person in the image who is:
> (a.) clearly recognizable, and
> (b.) clearly the "subject" of the photo?
>
>Also, generally "public" spaces are generally safer than "private"
>locations (where access is restricted), but I think the "Is this a
>commercial work?" question is the most important. Also, in public
>groups of three or more, it's difficult to argue that the picture is
>about you, as an individual.
>
>All that said, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't even play one on TV, so
>you probably shouldn't say, "But, Rob told me..." to the judge if
>you get in trouble. Honestly! I may be wrong.
>
>However, even if I won't go to court to defend you, there's
>certainly no shortage of opinions on the internet nowadays, so
>here's a couple of links I found just now which should be helpful:
>
>Photographic Model Release Forms: When You Need Them, When You Don't
><http://www.betterphoto.com/article.asp?id=37>
>
>When do you need a Release and when don't you?
><http://www.nyip.com/sub_idx_pgs/referidx/basic_model_release.html>
>
>when you don't need a model release photo - Google Search
><http://www.google.com/search?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&q=when+you+don%27t+need+a+model+release+photo>
>
>Rob Johnson
>Computer Operations & Information Services
>
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Received on Wed Jun 21 16:51:56 2006