Hey guys. I have a situation that I think my friend doesn't have a claim against, but I thought I'd ask some people who might know anyways. Our alma mater (not Notre Dame) took a picture of my friend when he wasn't a student and wasn't on college grounds, and they are now using it in ads for the university. He's the dead center of the photo, so it's hard for to miss him. He's wondering if he has any financial claim to these photos given the grounds above. Any ideas?
The type of lawyer you are looking for is an intellectual property lawyer. These laws vary from state to state.
I am not a lawyer, but I used to work for a motion content licensing company. What I can tell you is this... You have the absolute right to your privacy and your likeness (unless apparently you are on a scholarship - and I am not kidding - and we represented the NCAA's library). If you did not release the use of your likeness, the content creator has a liability, which is why it's cheaper to hire actors, blur faces, or send production assistants around to get the public to sign off on any commercial production.
The question for an attorney comes down to this. What are the damages? What is the financial gain?
Think of it this way:
If you could prove you lost your job because of their commercial use of your likeness - you have damages.
If you are Michael freakin Jordan and now it looks like MJ himself endorses your school - you have damages.
If this ad campaign is part of a $200m worldwide print, tv, and web ad campaign where your likeness is featured prominently, what would a paid (non-celeb) actor have earned instead? Some small multiple of that is likely to be the limit of their liability based on prior precedent. The size of the campaign and the degree to which you are featured will factor into the damages. Assuming you didn't lose your job and aren't MJ, an IP Attorney can look at the material and at the precedents and know what the damages are likely to be - a settlement is probably pretty easy from there. How much are you hoping for to make it worth your time and worth an attorney's time? Are there 50 other people in the photo? Now it could be worth the attorney's time...
BTW - There is a great story while I worked there with regards to a UPS commercial about some scrub standing under the basket for Kentucky during the Christian Laettner shot that has been used exhaustively in multiple ad campaigns (UPS, Allstate, Vitamin Water). Everyone not named Laettner or Thomas Hill basically got $1000 to release their likeness. This one guy, was like nope, nope, nope, I don't want to, and I don't have to. He got like $20,000 because the spots were cut and it was going to be more costly to remove him. He also nearly got an ad agency fired - I think they paid it themselves.
Oh yeah, here's a good article I found that might be helpful...
Controlling the Use of Your Image or Likeness | LegalMatch Law Library
