A Question for Copyright

Here’s a question,

You have a friend offer to take your picture and it’s a sunny day, you’ve all had a great time and snap its done.

Now fast forward a few months and you have a falling out over a business that you were going yo purchase and decide that it’s not in your best interests. Your relationship sours and devolves into long silences and neither party wants to unfriend each other in some morbid game of who will delete first.

But it raises a valid question, If someone offers to take a picture of you and you accept, what legal ramifications kick in as to who owns what?

Our case in hand, we accepted for this “friend” to take our picture on “their camera”. We didn’t however mention that this picture could be used by them in any way.

So when this “friend” allowed us to copy the picture from their facebook page all was ok. It was only when we used this picture on our Paddle Board Social Page that this “friend” went ballistic.

I need to mention that the business we were looking into was a Stand Up Paddle Board business idea for Santo in Vanuatu. It was a concept idea that hadn’t been tested and was loaded with pitfalls (hence was dropped the purchase).

So who owns what?

Here’s a scenario

I’m walking along the boardwalk at Noosa, I’m taking snaps of my beautiful wife on my SLR camera. Some random elderly couple ask “would you like us to take your picture?” – Does he now own the picture???

Here’s the picture – Nice photo random old couple:)

Our “friend” has now unfriended us (which we always knew was going to happen) but it’s the so called “Hate campaign” promoted by one of their friends that was really disappointing (their number 0478069009, please feel free to call it)

But if the scenario mentioned plays true, then these pictures taken of our “friend” below are “our intellectual property”

It’s sad when you can’t even post a picture of yourself without someone getting all bent out of shape.