The recent flap at Flickr over the unauthorized use of a person's likeness in a photograph should raise a red flag for all shutterbugs who use the Web as a gallery for their snapshots. "Your best bet is to make your images private," advises Kim Komando in her syndicated column this week. "You can share them with people you trust not to misuse them. The leading photo sites allow you to keep your photos private."



"Even then," the radio maven continues, "you might be granting a site the right to use your photos. So before posting photos online, learn what rights you're giving away." In her column, Komando offers useful summaries of the rights commandeered from their members by some of the major sharing sites-Flickr, AOL Pictures, Kodak Gallery and Picasa Web Albums.

Meanwhile, Anita Ramasastry, an associate professor of law at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle and a director of the Shidler Center for Law, Commerce & Technology, weighed in yesterday on the Flickr case, Chang v. Virgin Mobile, in a piece written for FindLaw.

"The core implication of the Chang/Virgin Mobile case is clear: Internet users should be wary of using online photos for commercial purposes, without seeking the consent of the persons in those photos," Prof. Ramasastry writes. "This is the case even if they are covered by a Creative Commons license."

"While most Internet users are relatively well-aware of copyright issues," she continues, "they may not be as aware of the less commonly cited 'right of publicity.' Yet violating that right by using a person's image for a commercial use can be very costly-as I believe Virgin Mobile Australia will soon learn."