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When posting pictures online, it pays to be mindful. They may come back to haunt you, writes Adam Bub.
It’s 1948. A starlet struggles to crack Hollywood, so she poses nude for a calendar. Five years later, the photos reappear in the first edition of Playboy magazine, when she’s mega-star Miss Marilyn Monroe.
It’s 2008. Pornographic photos of 23-year-old sheet-metal worker Sam Brodie (porn pseudonym ‘Ben’) posing for gay-for-pay website SeducedStraightGuys.com (pictured inset) have allegedly resurfaced following his appearance as a contestant on Channel Seven’s television ratings winner, Gladiators.
Shortly after being spotted by a forum member on UK website FamousMales.com, gay men’s magazine DNA posted images of the self-described ‘ladies man’ online.
While Brodie may not achieve the same sexual iconicity as Monroe, both scenarios raise a pertinent question: who owns these pictures?
Under the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information protection Act 1998, the subject of a photograph cannot take legal action if that photograph is reproduced elsewhere, unless there are grounds for defamation.
Geoff Holland, a lecturer in Law at the University of Technology, Sydney, claims that in Brodie’s case, there are no grounds for defamation since none of the media stories ridicule him – they just present a matter of public interest. Holland says: “The real question should be, ‘just because he made this two years ago, should those images be able to be reproduced without his permission now?’”
Holland, who specialises in copyright, media law and gay and lesbian rights, told SX that when you give consent for your image to be used for commercial purposes, you are “basically selling your soul. You’re giving them the right to use [the pictures] in any way that they want. I think in Australia, we do need to have a legally recognised way of protecting our privacy, like the USA has”.
So it’s a two-way street: copyright goes to the commercial entity once the star has signed on the dotted line. Tony Denton, the webmaster of SeducedStraightGuys.com, told SX that Brodie is “a really nice guy … but I don’t think he’ll be doing any more modelling for us after this”.
Photographic ownership has greater implications in the world of online personal and social networking sites, where anyone can publish images and videos on websites like Facebook and YouTube.
Recently, Swimming Australia urged athletes to make their profiles private, when swimmer Stephanie Rice’s photos showed her pole-dancing with another team-mate. Employers and universities also use Facebook to monitor, and sometimes take action, against people whose photos appear inappropriate, says Holland.
Holland warns Internet users to be aware of their rights before posting images and information. “A few years ago I researched gay personal sites, and found a dozen people using the same photo from one profile. There are a lot of traps out there.
“Whether uploading images to Gaydar, or any other site, you should always read the terms and conditions carefully. Think about not only whether that information is going to get you a hookup or not, but also who else can access the information.”
The message could not come at a better time, as the Australian Law Reform Commission is currently reviewing the federal Privacy Act 1988, with a report to follow after May.
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Photo finish
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