Artist drew a portrait of my adopted son and won't remove it from social media?

[giddyuproo]

Hello,

No idea if I am being unreasonable here... I paid an artist to do a portrait drawing of my son (who is adopted and for safety reasons cannot have any public photos, etc.) the artist posted the finished artwork with the photo reference she used.

I asked if she would please remove it and she says no and that she has every right to post it and needs to for her portfolio...

I don't really know what to do here. Is this true? Can she just use them? :/

Thanks

Well technically she's right but that's poor of her not to take it down in this circumstance.

Next time, discuss copyright first.

Can you offer her any more money to buy the copyright?

Have you explained that images of your son shouldn't be publically available for safety reasons?

Very unreasonable of her to not take it down if you've explained and asked her to remove it.

Did she take the reference photo? If not then she should take that down!

Maybe actually spell out she could potentially be endangering your dc?

That's such a tricky situation.

My friend had an issue previously with a photographer who posted a picture of her child's baby photos on Facebook despite signing 'no' on the form! My friend does not have her child's photos anywhere on social media. She did pull it down in the end but it took a while.

Your circumstance is different though since its obviously for safety reasons. Have you explained it's for safety reasons? What did the disclosure say that you signed?

I have explained the situation to her and she has said that she can't remove it because of the "shares" she has had and needs that for future work. Telling me it's "unfair" that she expects me to not show the work she has done. She has become really defensive and now I'm really worried and would love to know if I have any options here if she just continues to refuse.

Is his or your name posted along with the artwork? If so I would be furious. Even if not, I think she is being unreasonable, especially as you have asked her to remove it. But I don't know what you can actually do about.

As someone who uses photos in a similar way I don't believe she can. She must have your permission to publish it under GDPR regulations. Photos are considered personal data.

Is she local? Anyway you could give her a bad review without making the issue more public. Could you, for example, say she was unhelpful, unkind and uncooperative? That's all true, but not too outing.

Basically make it so it's not worth her while to keep it up.

Call social services and tell them about the stuff on social media

Under GDPR she is required by law to remove the picture if you do not consent. Tell her you will report her to the ICO if she doesn't remove it immediately

Has she posted it on Facebook? If so, you can get pictures taken down if they are of children under 13 which have been posted without your permission. Someone posted photos on FB of my dd when she was at Primary School and I reported the photos to FB who removed them.

facebook.com/help/1561472897490627?helpref=hc_global_nav

You could try reporting it to Facebook here? I've reported images that have infringed on my copyright and Facebook removed them in just a couple of hours.

Did you sign anything when you agreed for her to pay?
I don’t think YABU btw but unsure of legalities.

Does she have terms and conditions on her website?

help.instagram.com/contact/267832646728129 - and here if it was posted on Instagram (who were also very quick to remove reported images in my case)

Check your booking form/contracts etc, if you didn't consent she can't use the images. That's really awful, I hope she gets it down quickly. Imagine putting 'likes' before the welfare of a child, shocking.

Well, the artist who did a caricature of my son (also by adoption) asked my permission to use it for advertising & accepted it when I said no on safety grounds & I can’t see why he’d do that if he didn’t have to under GDPR etc. But how you insist, I don’t know.

Although it is her intellectual property she should have explicit consent to share it publicly under gdpr legislation. You need to check what you have signed first of all.

Tell her you'll share her name and behaviour, the revolting, self serving parcel, fancy putting her own financial interest in front of the safety of you son, honestly I am furious on you behalf

I think posters are perhaps missing the point in the OP ? This is not a photo bit a drawing.

@BalloonSlayer she said the artist put the reference photo up as well

Under GDPR she is required by law to remove the picture if you do not consent. Tell her you will report her to the ICO if she doesn't remove it immediately

That is not necessarily true and the ICO are shit for individual infractions, but it might be worth contacting them. I would suggest at the same time:

1. Who took the photo? If you, then you own the copyright on the photo and arguably the derived work. This might not be enough to win in court, but a 'letter before action' or a case in small claims might be enough to deter.

1. Did you commission her to do the work (i.e. contacted her and asked her to paint your son)? This seems likely. In this case you probably do own the copyright and small claims is slow but effective.

1. At the same time as above you could ask your LA to contact her and discuss the matter. They will be bloody busy so you may need to nag and plead.

1. In most cases the risks from something like this are extremely low. If there is specific risk from birth family I would consider asking the police to contact her.

Does she have terms and conditions on her website?

I don't think this would vitiate common law. OP would need to explicitly sign away copyright if this a work for hire.

Balloon isn’t it both? A drawing with the photo it was based on?

It is an image. Under gdpr that would count as identifiable information.