Comment by tseabrooks | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tseabrooks | Hacker News Reader

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Serious question. If you consent today to let me take pictures of you nude... Don't I own the copyright of those pictures? Now, presumably if you and I were dating your consent would be very casual... I'd say, "Hey, mind if I snap some photos" and you'd say, "Go right ahead"... Because I'm quite charming.

A year later I still have these photos and we're not dating any longer. Do I own copyright on photos as the photographer? How far does your casual consent go? Do I need formal consent saying I can reproduce them?

A photo journalist will take a photo of a couple in the park as a child plays in the fountain behind them and use it in the paper the next day. What consent do they need to get from those being photographed?

It just all feels very fuzzy. Presumably most of the nude pictures are taken by someone other than the subject of the photos... meaning the photographer owns the copyright.. I'd think.

Anyone have more info on how this actually plays out?

According to the Jezebel article and wikipedia most revenge porn photos are selfies or photoshops of stolen non-nude pictures. In which case copyright law would apply.

However, to answer your question, you do own the copyright of a photo you take (unless it is a work for hire) even if you take it without permission. The requirement to get permission isn't related to copyright, it's related to the right to privacy. People have sued for damages over revenge porn violating their privacy rights. http://www.scribd.com/doc/138909420/Revenge-Porn-Complaint-H...

If you think in terms of rights to privacy, then it becomes a lot less fuzzy. A child playing in a public place has no expectation of privacy regarding a photograph being taken and put in a newspaper. When someone lets a lover take photographs of them naked there is an implicit expectation that those photos will remain private between them. It would be hard for the photographer to argue that there was no reasonable expectation of privacy when the purpose of distributing these photographs is to get revenge.

I believe that the photographer owns the copyright.

There might however be obligations owed by the photographer to the model in such a scenario. I imagine that it could be deemed a 'breach of confidence'[1] and there may be specific privacy laws in some jurisdictions.

Also for this specific case of nude pictures I imagine you could quite quickly get into harassment/cyberstalking territory.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breach_of_confidence_in_Englis...

The law surrounding the intersection of copyright, photography, and the internet (with user generated content and Safe Harbour thrown in for good measure) is indeed fuzzy. Honestly, I don't know whether there exists any hard and fast rules per se. When you have so many laws together and sometimes in conflict with one another... I don't know. It's difficult.

I don't think it's that fuzzy, because even if you gave consent at one point to be photographed naked, that doesn't mean that the person having access to the photos can do anything they want with them. I mean it's one thing to send a nude pic in a sext and it's another to upload the pic to the internet with all your personal information.

There was a great interview about this last year in a Canadian radio show: http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2013/06/13/end-revenge-porn/

But... Isn't this why it's legal for "Topless sunbathing photo of celebrity" to show up in the enquirer? They were topless in a public area (Sunbathing on a boat, for instance) and a photographer snapped a photo?

I'm just trying to play the other side of the coin here. It's really unclear to me if revenge porn sites are illegal or just a really asshole thing to do.

Also, In the example you're using... someone sent a sext and that means they were the original photographer, so they own the copyright. It sounds like there are two different types of photos here.

I took a photo of you because you said I could - I own the copyright and can reproduce.

You took a photo of yourself and sent it to me - You're the original photographer, I have no rights to the photo and can't share or reproduce.

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