Photo: Justin Ho-Wee Wong (Alison on left)
The Ad:
Just the Facts Ma'am
- Alison is a 16 year-old who had this picture taken by her youth counselor, Justin Ho-Wee Wong
- Justin posted the photo to his Flickr page with the creative Commons License that it could be used with credit to him, but only in noncommercial uses
- Australia Virgin Mobile starts an ad campaign using Flickr photos and using this one of Alison with the words “Dump your pen friend” and “Free text virgin to virgin” in the ad
- The ad does mention Flickr, but “fails to credit the photographer by name”
- In September 2007 Chang’s family sues Australia Virgin Mobile and Creative Commons because the ad “caused their teenage daughter grief and humiliation”. Alison found the tag line "derogatory"
Links:
- Sydney Morning Herald: "Virgin sued for using teen's photo" (September 21, 2007)
- TimesOnline: Virgin angers bloggers by using Flickr pics without asking (July 25, 2007)
- The ad posted on Flickr and the resulting discussion from Alison, the Justin, and various others (lots of discussion). This is when Alison realized what happened.