User Comments

1. 

   22 days ago

   DaneMorgan

   Whether you may get sued or not has nothing to do with whether something is legal or not, and ownership is not the only question over which people may sue.
   
   The question you are asking is far to broad for any real answer, but...
   
   In general terms, you need to own the rights to publish the image, or be sure that the image is unprotected by copyright.
   
   You need to make sure, when using images of personally identifiable people that you do not use the images in a way that suggests their endorsement of anything they did not specifically allow you to represent.
   
   If the image is of a personally identifiable person you MAY be safe posting it without a model release if the image was taken in a public place where the person had no reasonable right to expect privacy. A model release is always a good idea.
   
   Finally, even if you do everything above board and legal, if someone is upset by your use of their image, they can still sue you, and if they have the money to do so there is a long tradition of using the courts to simply break a person or business. Unless you have the deep pockets and time to spend in court for years while they drain your accounts through attorney fees, you're best to just not publish or to at least take the image down at the first hint they are displeased with it's publication.
   
   It may not be right that people with deep pockets can use the courts to bend people with out them to their will, but it is the fact.

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