I’m a theatre person. When my likeness is used in photos, videos, advertisements, etc., I have to sign a waiver allowing the use of my likeness for X compensation, whether monetary or non-monetary. Children below 18 aren’t allowed to sign those waivers because they aren’t legally able to enter into contracts. At least, in the U.S. Not sure of the age of consent in other countries. But the guardians or parents are allowed to sign the contract, which is how we get Bubba, the Quiznos baby or the E-Trade baby.
With the trend of everyone having a camera in their pocket (cell phones) and taking pictures of whomever or whatever they want, I have asked the question "What happens to the consent issue?". It used to be you only got your picture taken when you wanted it taken and only by people you knew. No longer, though. And now, with the advent of YouTube! and social websites, anyone who takes a picture of you can post it on the internet. And given how large the world is and how viral these things can be, it’s hard to know who to pester if you want said photo removed.
So now I hear about this: Facebook & Google’s privacy issues in Europe and you know what? I’m not really surprised. I’m not sure how enforceable such things are going to be, but I can guarantee that this movement is going to pick up momentum. I’m just waiting to hear about the day that the U.S. Attorney General decides to go after this sort of thing. Of course, I think the AG will have to be lobbied first.
Tiger Woods got upset that his likeness was put on a bunch of sex toys. His lawyers issued a "Cease and Desist" order the other day because Tiger hadn’t been asked or paid for the use of his likeness. But Joe Schmoe, the guy who lives down the street from me, might have his likeness pasted on a bunch of shot glasses and he’d never know unless someone pointed them out to him. He’d have a harder time getting his likeness removed and the items destroyed than Tiger will. And Joe certainly won’t make a fortune from his likeness.
Which leads me to the main questions of the week. In a world of free speech, especially electronic free speech, what are our rights to privacy?
And really, how much free speech are we willing to sacrifice for the right of privacy?
2 Responses
The photo thing is bad but I have other peeves about FaceBook. There’s a kind of battle where the developers stay two steps ahead of the users in exploiting their info to third parties. I think the applications on FaceBook infringe our privacy to advertisers/ third parties we know nothing about. FaceBook has changed the rules so that my “Friends” list is public & there is no way to change it back to private as it was before. This is not cool and leaves the door open to all kinds of info abuse.
Interesting that you should bring up the Friends List problem. I read an article just a couple of weeks ago where someone got into trouble because his or her Facebook Friends List was public. Good grief, I wish I could remember what it was.
Wait. I think this is it: http://www.wxow.com/Global/story.asp?S=12147379 or another story like it.
In this particular case, it was how a criminal got caught. But for those of us who don’t regularly commit crimes aside from normal jaywalking, etc, it’s a serious issue to have your private information gleaned from social networking sites. Just by googling “private information facebook public friends list,” I came up with a TON of links highlight the problems with Facebooks new privacy policies.
Makes me glad I avoided that site.