Virgin Mobile Steals Teen's Flickr Photo For Ad Campaign

art work? youve got to be kidding me...and then terry says she wouldve felt like she was raped...omg talk about drama. It was a picture of a girl on a public website with disclaimers stating as much, so wheres the theft...shes just pissed she didnt get paid.

I agree with several of the previous posts - The race thing is getting old. But, they should have got permission before using the photo.

I am a photographer and let me just say right now that I am soooo frusterated and peeved by dishonest jerks who steal other people's artwork (yes, photography is something you create, it IS an art) so they can make some money. I will NEVER give Virgin Mobile my business in the future!

I hope she takes them for millions! I will never use Virgin Mobile services and I am telling everyone to boycott them. We should all tell this company that we will never use their products. Make them squeal like the pigs they are!

THAT IS TERRIBLE! HOW OUTRAGEOUS! I MYSELF AM SO SHY WITH HAVING MY PHOTO TAKEN, I WOULD HAVE FELT RAPED. I KNOW THAT IS A LITTLE EXTREME, BUT I AM INTENCELY PRIVATE AND SHY THAT WAY. AND THEN TO BE PROTRAYED IN THAT POOR WAY. HOW ALWFUL

I WOULD LIKE TO ADD ALSO, 1)SORRY ABOUT THE SPELLING, AND 2)I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THE AD WAS RACIST THOUGH. HOW IS "DUMP YOUR PEN FRIEND" AGAINST ASIANS? I DON'T GET IT.
HOWEVER THE WAY THE COMPANY USED HER WAS OUTRAGEOUS.

I think people should be more outraged at Virgin's ad agency that created the ad. It's unthinkable to me that an agency would create an ad without securing rights for any photography used. I do think the girl should be compensated, but I think the agency should have to pay.

Actually they didn't steal the photo, it was listed with a Creative Commons License. This basically gives anyone permission to use the photo as they please, however it does NOT give them the right to use the image for commercial usage without permission of the model, they still need a model release even if the photographer gives away his/her rights to the image.

I don't have an issue marking some of my images under the CC license but I would mark them non commercial, in other words they can be used by students for projects etc, and I would never put one of these licenses on an image with a person it it.

She does have a right to get mad because they didnt ask permission to use her phone but clearly Free Virgin to virgin means virgin phone to virgin phone and there saying drop your pen like writing PEOPLE hello!!!! But then again thats australia not the U.S so she may not know?

The "dump your pen friend" implies that she is a geek and then on top of that they ever so slightly imply that she is a virgin. I wouldn't want my picture seen on bus stops as a caricature of a stereotypical Asian. To the people who don't get it, ask yourself this; does the ad make more sense to you with a pic of a schoolgirl-looking Asian or with a picture of a white/Black/Latino girl? That's why.

More power to this lady & her family. They should be ashamed of using this picture in this fashion. Photography is an art & should be considered as such & not be used as this company has. The remark is pure & simple racist. Make them pay!

Why does everything these days turn into a matter of race? What the hell does "pen friend" mean to these people??
1). "Dump your pen friend" means dump your pen pal...for those of you who don't know what a pen pal is, it is someone you write to using old fashioned snail-mail. Very much not racist.
2). "Free text Virgin to Virgin" means that Virgin Mobile customers can text each other for free. Same thing as "Free text Verizon to Verizon" or "...Cingular to Cingular".
3). The girl's family is right in saying that Virgin shouldn't have used the girl's image without her permission.
Now, though, they have drawn more negative attention to the girl than the whole "offensive" ad campaign did. No one probably noticed anything derogatory about the ad until the parents pointed it out to people, and some people still don't understand how the caption is supposed to be racist. The parents should have just stopped their complaint at "They used her image without permission" because the other stuff they are saying makes them look stupid

Mick, you're wrong; the photo WAS stolen. The CC licence permits many uses and freedoms in respect of posted images, but it does not grant usage (or theft) in any commercial context. So it's most definitely theft...

The copyright issue alone should net this girl and her family a healthy compensatory sum, but the mis-use of her image and the context in which she has been presented to potentially millions of people, should make for a serious payout. The victim and her family should milk this baby for all it's worth.

Back when we relied upon the postal service, schools from different countries would swap penpal lists so that both cultures could learn from one another. Quite often the other students were from Asian countries and were learning English. Most likely, the young lady's parents are referring to this b/c a "foreign penpal" was almost always Asian.

Tim, the photo was licensed CC-Attribution Only which allows commercial use, so there was no copyright violation here at all.

The only issue seems to be whether Virgin Mobile is allowed to use the photo of the girl without a model release, but as I understand Australian law, no model releases are necessary there. So it boils down to jurisdiction. Can an Australian company (following Australian laws) use a photo of an American taken in America without following American privacy laws?

A MAJOR invasion of privacy issue here. And Virgins defense will probably be ; 'Once it's on the Internet. it's public domain." Not so. The counselor should also sue. The issue being, If you are generating income from somethindf I created, I'm entitled to royalties.

Dump your pen fLiend would have been racist.

If that was my teenage girl you bet I'd go after Virgin Mobile. What does it take for a large corporation to take their own photo with their own employee with their own equipment? Come on. I don't believe they had the audacity.

If it were a famous person that ad would have never happened.

I seriously doubt that Sir Richard Branson would authorize something like this. If he isn't already informed, he will find out soon, and I am quite sure that something serious will be done.