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Hi

I hope the many people reading this can offer me and my girlfriend some advice as I am sure lots of you have had to deal with this at some point.

We both attended a nightclub a while ago where they had a dunk tank full of water and as a bit of fun we both went in. Recently I've gone to the nightclub's website to look at some pictures, followed a few links and discovered the guy who owns the company who tours with the dunk tank also runs 'wetlook' adult sites and is selling off the footage of these events as porn.

To my knowledge there were no signs up at the nightclub, nor was it mentioned to us that they would be filming and selling the footage. Can he sell this stuff without written/verbal consent from us? It was a 'public' place but you had to pay to get in if that changes anything. It is all UK based so would be subject to UK law.

My girlfriend works with children so being on a dvd of that nature wouldn't do her career any favours and she is not happy about being exploited in that way.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance.
Martin

If he's got his head screwed on, he'll have some small print somewhere saying if you take part you agree to be exploited by him. It allows him to take advantage of drunks in nightclubs who aren't going to think about the repercussins of the harmless fun until its too late.

Martin

If all you did in the dunk tank was get wet, I can't see any real problems - remember BBC Saturday Morning TV features a gunge tank.

If some form of "lewd conduct" was performed, it might be different.

I have to agree with Peter that the night club owner will probably have some form of small print either at the door or above the door stating films is permitted.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Harry

As far as I understand it he doesn't need permission to use your image if it was recorded in a public place or an establishment frequented by members of the public. Whether it was openly or covertly filmed there is no law to forbid it. It's no different to the cameras at a football match scanning the crowd - you may not like it but there's not much you can do.

Thanks for the comments everyone, as I feared really. The only thing I can say about it is that the images have been taken out of context, from a bit of fun to porn.

I will be talking to some solicitors about it briefly and if all else fails I'll be writing to all the nightclubs and papers telling them what the guy is really up to.

Thanks again!

Suprised at all this lot , anyone taking anybodys photo , out on the street or wherever without that persons permission cannot publish it without the persons consent . Get in touch with him and ask him if he'll take it down , if not ask him if he realises he's breaking the law . You can't just take someones photo and use it , be it for profit or not . JJ .

Have you tried contacting him and asking him to take it down? Im sure he has dozens of pics he can use so he might not mind taking it down if you explain why etc - sometimes the easy way is the best way and Im sure he wont want the grief same as you dont so he mght just say yes and that will be the end of that!!

Jay

Not really the case, here is a faq from a photography site:

Q How can I decide whether it's all right to take photographs at a public event?

A Assuming consent cannot reasonably be sought because the photographs are taken in a public place, eg a street scene or at the New Forest Show, and if you can answer `yes' to the following questions, it would be reasonable to take the photographs and use them for the original purpose without fear of being in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

* Would people attending the event expect photographs to be taken?

* Would people in the photograph probably consider themselves to be in a public place, with no expectation of privacy?

* Do you think it unlikely that anyone would object to the photograph being taken? (You should bear in mind that an individual could be in a public place, such as a care home, but may not want any images in which they are present being used.)

Some venues, eg arts centres and country parks, night want to consider displaying signs stating that attendees may appear in photographs taken on the council's behalf for publicity purposes

If the local council took your pic' and put it in a display , if you didn't want to have your mush seen by all and sundry and contacted the people to ask if they'd remove said pic' , would they ? yes , because it's not got your consent . No ? . JJ . Why do scum get their photo's taken down when put up by the police ?

jaybo, sorry mate they a right, if its a public place your fair game,,,,,hard as it may seem we would not have newspapers otherwise, if its your private property then its different.....Its call stated case or something as I have been to court about it years ago.

Phil McC