photographs

[Robert Spenger]

Donald,

I don't know much about the legal aspects of referring to others in
written material, other than avoiding libel, but photographs are a
different issue. If some one sells a photo of someone or publishes a
book with photos of people the seller or publisher can get in serious
trouble if there is no signed permission to use the photos. I don't know
about posting them on the net when there is no profit involved. I
realize that there are special exceptions to this such as people
appearing in photos of newsworthy events. But if a friend, who has posed
for a picture, has not signed a model release the photographer can be
sued for selling the picture.

regards,

Robert

Donald Schell wrote:

> All this is the ordinary dilemma any writer of non-fiction,
> travelogue, spiritual autobiography or memoir will face.  Morally,
> it's an issue of truth-telling and avoiding self-aggrandizement.  And
> the danger of 'permissions' is that it has a writer looking over
> his/her shoulder.  Even making composites and changing names wouldn't
> have avoided this, and for the kind of writing we were doing,
> composites wouldn't have worked very well.
>
> So this appears to me.
>
> love,
> donald