Photo Copyrighting Question.

Quick question- When it comes to the issue of taking photographs in public... i know for a fact that you are allowed to take a photo in public, well, as long as the audience is not doing anything termed as confidential. As for photos with children in the background you do need some form of authorization to use the images right?? My husband and i took photos in a stadium over the weekend. My husband writes a Soccer blog and we wanted to use the images for one of his posts but most of the photos have kids in the background?...

INLB (I'm no lawyer but...) My guess is it depends on how the image will be used. If you are posting the photo on a small local site or using the photo in a local newsletter, it is a lot different than if you are using the photo for commercial purposes. Still even if a local use, I would ask the parents of the children who are visible in the photo if it is OK with them.

My wife wrote a book on copyrights for artists, Electronic Highway Robbery, An artist's guide to copyrights in the digital era, Mary E. Carter, but that book is out of date now.

California Lawyers for the Arts www.calawyersforthearts.org/and other similar organizations offer free legal advice (one time only I think). I would ask them. Get a real legal opinion.

What we knew was that the basic rule of copyright says that only the copyright owner can copy, distribute or allow others to use their work. However, as for this case, it's quite tricky. We have decided to get a CC License. Apparently, this sought of license is supposed to make your copyrighting issues much easier. So there are six types of this CC license which i was reading about here, plus i might just go ahead and make myself acquainted with the topic because unfortunately, Lawyers don't come cheap.