A couple of months ago I wrote about feeling concerned that a Virgin Mobile campaign using Flickr images was pushing the boundaries of sharing a bit. Texas teenager Alison Chang thinks so too. She’s suing for grief and humiliation. The ad, “Dump Your Pen Friend” is here, along with a lot of discussion, including some postings from Alison’s brother and some others who’ve been “Virgin-ed”. It’s not so much the copyright issue that Alison is concerned about, it’s the damage to her reputation and possible exposure to ridicule from the headline, and the copy “Free text, virgin to virgin” which might (eek!) suggest she’s a virgin.
General opinion in the discussion seems to be that CC license or no CC license, a model release is still required to use a pic in this way. So Alison’s probably in a good position for free phone calls for life. I really hope so!
Flickr credit: chewywong
