legal issues / consent HELP !

I am wondering about a situation we are embarking on here at the

Discovery Museum. We are a private nonprofit science & technology

museum for kids. I am hoping to do a bit of fundraising with digital

images. We host events, school groups, parties, etc here daily. We

plan to capture images of these visitors and post them to our

website. These images would be for sale as a fundraiser for the

museum.

Are there legal implications with this? Is consent necessary?

Visitors are on private property and pay for admission. Can a blanket

consent be posted at the entrance?

Any assistance or direction would be greatly appreciated!

I've actually done similar work for non profits and here is my take on it:<P> <I>Are

there legal implications with this?</I><P>Yes.<P><I> Is consent necessary?

</I><P>Yes.<P> <I>Visitors are on private property and pay for admission.

</I><P>That is irrelevant.<P><I>Can a blanket consent be posted at the entrance?

</I><P>Sure but the question is : If someone decides their right to privacy is

intruded on when the photographs are published, how are you going to prove they

read the posting? Use model releases and get the consent in writing from the adult's

or from the children's parents or legal guardians.<P><I>Are you a lawyer?

</I><P>No and even if I were I'd still say: If you want real and binding legal advice

ask your lawyer, that is what he or she is being paid for.

I think that in addition to the legal aspects, there is also the very important question of how you relate to your customers. Even if were legal to put people 'at risk' of having their photos taken and used without their consent, it doesn't, to my mind, seem a very friendly thing to do.

Also there are tremendous sensitivities nowadays around taking pictures of children. Asking consent of the parents is vital, seen purely from a relationship point of view. This is a right old pain in the elbow, if your kids come in school groups, without their parents attached.

I was recently involved in designing a communication resource for a major schools initiative, and I know the pain in the elbow very well. But, whatever the legal situation, it's worth investing in the relationship, just to make sure everyone else is happy. (Even if your elbow isn't too pleased.)

Good luck!

I've been to a variety of amusement type activities that used fixed cameras or photographers to shoot visitors. These same kinds of places also typically have restrictions on commercial photography and use small print notices that the customer may appear in publicity photos, etc. I don't believe any of them go to the effort to put them on the net for later viewing, they hit you quick and then dump them. Probably for a variety of reasons, including the sensitivity of putting customers out there on view and the effort of maintaining the shots, the memory usage, and the limited chances that there will be profitable follow-up.

So besides the potential legal issues, it doesn't seem like it's got a history of generating enough results that these different places have gone for it.