Photographs in editorials

[Deltadarlin]

There has been an incident where a college photographer took pictures of children during a classroom lesson. The pictures were posted in the online section of the school newspaper. Did the photographer have to get permission from the parents before using the pictures?

A new twist has developed. Another newspaper got wind of the photographs and published them in said newspaper without giving the original photographer credit (the newspaper in question related that they tried to contact the school about the pictures and did not get a response). Is that copyright infringement? The photographs that were used, were taken off the internet site of the on-line paper.

'darlin

[primoz]

There has been an incident where a college photographer took pictures of children during a classroom lesson. The pictures were posted in the online section of the school newspaper. Did the photographer have to get permission from the parents before using the pictures?

Basically you don't need any permission, as long as it's editorial. But you should be a bit careful when it's about kids.

A new twist has developed. Another newspaper got wind of the photographs and published them in said newspaper without giving the original photographer credit (the newspaper in question related that they tried to contact the school about the pictures and did not get a response). Is that copyright infringement?

Yes it is. Excuses like "I tried to contact you, but I didn't get answer, so I just used them anyway" don't work. If you don't get copyright owner's permission, you don't publish them. It really is as easy as that.

[blackshadow]

The school newspaper doesn't need permission from parents or subjects as it would be classed as editorial use.

As for the photos in the other newspaper I'd say that in this case they could argue that the use of the photo was granted under the "doctrine of fair use" as the news story was about the actual photographs and they were being reported on. Check out http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=388070

[bieber]

Wait, who ever said that the other newspaper was doing an article on the photographs themselves? It looks to me like they were running a similar story, and just used them without permission...

[Seefutlung]

Children have no greater "right to privacy" than adults.

[blackshadow]

Oops - I misread the original post... if the second paper just ripped the photos off then they certainly have no rights.