Virgin Mobile Australia sued for using teen's photo from Flickr

A Texas family has sued Australia's Virgin Mobile phone company; claims that it had caused their teenage daughter grief and humiliation by posting her photo on billboards and website advertisements without her consent.

Virgin Mobile, Australia grabbed Alison Chang’s picture from Flickr.com, Yahoo’s photo sharing site, for its mobile advertising campaign “Are You With US or What?” and superimposed her picture with their ad details but failed to credit the picture. A user saw this campaign in Australia, in the bottom of the picture it said flickr.com but still they should have asked the owner’s permission for this campaign, which the Virgin Mobile didn’t. Damon Chang, brother of Alison said the original picture of Alison flashing a peace sign was taken in April by Alison’s youth counselor and posted it on his Flickr page. The photo of Alison Chang (left) from Justin Ho-Wee Wong's Flickr photo-sharing web page. Photo by Justin Ho-Wee Wong. Virgin Mobile ad printed one of its campaign slogans, “Dump your pen friend”, over the Alison’s picture. Alison Chang said this picture has damaged her reputation, her peers, and her church friends are making fun of her and has exposed her to many who can search her photo in Google. Her family decided to file a lawsuit after this experience. As the Sydney Morning Herald Notes:

The lawsuit, filed in Dallas late yesterday, names Virgin Mobile USA LLC, its Australian counterpart, and Creative Commons Corp, a Massachusetts nonprofit that licenses sharing of Flickr photos, as defendants.

The family accused the companies of libel and invasion of Chang's privacy. The suit seeks unspecified damages for Chang and the photographer, Justin Ho-Wee Wong. Since this occurred in Australia, Virgin Mobile USA said it had nothing to do with it and wants their name removed from the lawsuit. Virgin Mobile Australia said it hasn’t received any copy about the lawsuit, so it will wait and respond accordingly. When any user post photos on Flickr, they will be asked how they want to license their photos, whether free distribution or not. The Youth Counselor chose a sharing license from Creative Commons that allows others to share the picture if they credit the photographer and where it was taken. The Ad showed his Flickr page but didn’t credit his name. Since the mobile company mentioned the link for the photo, it implies a credit for that photo indirectly, I don’t know whether the photographer or Alison will be able to win this case. I think the Virgin Mobile should have at least contacted them before posting her photo or could have replicated that image with another model on its own, flashing a V sign is not a difficult one to capture. To avoid this controversy in the future, either put the photos in a private mode or put a copyright sign at the bottom of the picture.