Legal to put Middle School Yearbook Pictures Online?
Question:
Furthermore, the place where I am putting the pictures would not be a public .com site, but "Facebook".
Just wondering if this is legal, or should not be attempted.
Answer:
Well, there are issues. Some states have "publication" regulations about placing young children's images in public places without parental consent.
There is the copyright issue -- technically, the photographer owns the copyright of those images, and they're licensed to the yearbook. And if you copy the book pages, if there's any original layout there at all, the school probably owns that copyright. Whether the school or a school photographer would get up in arms about low-res images just showing people from middle school is a different story. It doesn't matter whether the book is still sold -- copyright vests with the author and lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, or 95 years if the author is an institution.
Check with a licensed intellectual property or education law attorney in your jurisdiction.
Of course it is. Paris Hilton didn't give permission for her sex tape to be online and no one got arrested!
Without their permission, I'd consider it wrong (whether it's legal or not). However, I think you'll find any photograph taken by a professional photographer is copyrighted.
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