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A friend was shocked to see his photo on the cover of a book that is about the authors life experience . He never gave permission for the photo nor its use and original photo has another person behind him that has been cropped out with authors name across my friends legs . I found photo identifying my friend by name on Corbis and it says no model release. What can he do? This is very disturbing to him as he also does not want to be associated with the authors story.
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This is pirmarily a privacy, or civil rights, issue. As a general matter, it is impermissible to use the picture of a living human being for advertising, trade or commercial purposes without his or her permission. To do so without permission is a common-law tort in every state and forbidden by statute in other states like California and New York. The question for your friend is whether this use is a "commercial" use, because if it is really a journalistic use (i.e., an accurate representation of real-life events of interest to the public), then his permission may not be required. You can have your friend contact our office if he wishes to discuss this matter further.
Answered on Apr 01st, 2013 at 8:24 AM