liability photography disclaimers right-of-publicity
Does posting a photo of a couple on a website require permission from both people in the photo?
<p>Working on a unique concept website, I am questioning how legal it is and what sort of disclaimer would need to be present in the T&amp;C to remain protected.</p>

<p>Basically, a user pays a fee and is allowed to post a message and a picture that will all be public on the website, and available for all. The picture is of the user and his/her partner. Nothing sexual, nothing offensive, nothing shaming (if so, deleted and refunded.)</p>

<p>My question lies in the user is allowing us to put his picture up, but what about the other person on this picture? We count on the user to make sure the other person is fine with it, but how can we protect ourselves?</p>

<p>I am not a lawyer but my understanding of the law is that in the USA there is no need to get permission from anyone to post a photo unless:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>You did not take the photo. Then you need permission from the person who took the photo. It doesn't matter if the photo was taken with your camera; only the actual photographer matters. Your terms of use should specify that the author has permission to post the picture from the copyright owner. OR</p></li>
<li><p>Your use of the picture is appropriating name and likeness. In that case you need the permission of the people in the photograph. To learn more, Google right to publicity. Depending on the website this may or may not affect you.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I'm not an expert by any means, but from what I've seen on many websites where users are allowed to upload images freely, you'll be fine if you have an easily accessed portion of the website where people can request a picture be taken down. May or may not be related to DMCA, so that's a good place to start looking.</p>
