Consent issues

[clarethurman]

Hi,

I have recently completed a freelance job for a school Christmas production and they have asked me to supply a weblink so that parents can purchase prints from me. I wondered if anyone has any advice on the following?

1) What is the best website to use for this purpose
2) Do I need to have a document signed by the school to say it is their responsibility to obtain parental consent from the students parents?
3) Do the parents need to consent to the photos being available to other third parties via the internet?
4) Is is possible to set up a website gallery which only specific people can access and purchase from?

Any advice would be very much appreciated

Cheers
Clarity

[MickeyFinn]

Hi Clarity!

A lot of issues here

1) Best website... Depends on how much web experience you have. Some free packages to look at would be ZenCart and Gallery. Zen Cart is a shopping cart system and Gallery is a photo album system which has a purchase module that can be installed (it is a while since I looked at it but think I am right).

For both systems you would need web space with PHP and MySQL available and they both need a certain amount of configuring.

With any system you need to be able to take payments online and this does become complicated. For the service you are looking to provide I would recommend PayPal as it integrates well with Zen Cart or Gallery and also you could use it on a much simpler site.

Just make some static pages with thumbnails of the images and link these in to bigger copies so that the viewer can see them. On the page with the bigger photos just add a buy now button from PayPal, these are really easy to set up. You do not need a PayPal account to purchase using this either, they do accept credit and debit cards if the purchaser does not have a PayPal account. PayPal also provide a simple shopping cart so that multiple images can be purchased.

Whatever solution you look at it will take a fair amount of work to set something up.

2) Not a bad idea to get the school to sign some sort of disclaimer, I would definitely go for that.

3) Parental consent is not really an issue I would have thought. If the school gave permission and you have the signed disclaimer then that should be enough.

4) You can password protect any web site if you know what you are doing! It would complicate things a little though.

[Lupita]

Mickey's advice about the sites to use is top draw.

Not sure if you're asking this, but, it is necessary to ask permission of the photographer if you want to use their/your image in any way.

This is even more pertinant in relation to children and privacy rights.

L

[SharpClause]

The only thing you might need to check on is, as you say, whether parents are happy for pics of their kids to go on the web. It's madness out there at the moment for photographers wanting to take pics of the school nativity play etc - if one parent says no, it's no.

However one of the reasons for this is that if one of the children is a ward of court, or the mother or father is keeping the child safe from a recent trauma, then they might not be happy about an identifying pic of the child being on the www.

One way round that is to have a password-protected site, so that only those people who know the password can enter - and you give it out judiciously.

[MickeyFinn]

Hi SharpClause - Happy New Year! Up early again I see

Thanks for info on that one, did not realise kiddie photos was that much of an issue. One part of me wants to say fair enough, the other wants to scream at an over-protective state! Surely if there was a child who was a ward of court or the subject of a trauma or something else then the head would be aware and would make sure no photos containing that child were available. Seems silly to disappoint all parents for the sake of one child.

This is the society we live in I guess, no point moaning about it...

[clarethurman]

Hi,

Thank you all for your advice, very much appreciated.

I think I will go ahead and ask the school to sign something just to cover my back.

With the website thing, I am sure I would be able to get something like Mickey suggested up and running but like you say it would take a fair amount of time, something which I don't have much of at the moment!

I was looking at using something like the Pro Galleries on Photobox, which would save me a lot of hassle but the only thing is I wouldn't be able to password protect my gallery I don't think. Does anyone know of any similar websites where you can do this?

Clarity

[MickeyFinn]

Hi Clarity,

I never thought of PhotoBox! I have an account with them and have just checked, you can make an album private (only you can view it), shared (only people you invite can see it) or public (open to all). So it looks like you would be able to get a list of email addresses of parents from the school and then share the album only with them.

The question i have though is do you make money from selling the prints yourself? If so surely this will not be possible if you use Photobox?

[clarethurman]

Hi Mickey,

The only way you can do it on Photobox whereby you set the prices and get paid for prints is by setting up a Pro Gallery. I don't think you can make these shared or private though....
I have sent them an email to check.

Thanks
Clarity

[SharpClause]

Of course!! Photobox! Doh!!

Yes you can do that. You can set up a private gallery and 'share' it with selected email addresses so people pay Photobox print prices, or you can set up a pro gallery and set your own prices, and share that. They are very good too - the prints are always great (at least, I've found so).

Happy New Year to you MickeyFinn I know, it's all gone mad, and everyone is paranoid about photographers. Good point too about the Head - it's a tricky one though isn't it. Do you stop the kid taking part in school events in case he/she ends up in a picture, or do you allow them to join in as normal and prohibit photographic access .. sigh. There's always lots of heated stuff going on about exactly this on the photo website I belong to.

Ah well. Good freelancing, everyone May your bank accounts grow fat.

[Paul Berry]

Hi Clarity,

This is becoming a seriously dangerous minefield these days, sadly not so much from people who have genuince concerns for kids, but for gold diggers who see you as an easy way to make money and sue for that purpose.

However I've consulted a legal helpline on this very issue and they say that as long as you are invited by the school you are therefore a visiting professional and as long as the school gives written consent to your actions and purpose then you are clear of liabilty from third parties, ie, parents. Any consent issues should have been dealt with by the school and they should have made it clear to parents that you would be present, if that is the case any kid found in shot is there with parents foewarned knowledge.

If everything is above board and forwarned from the start then you shouldn't [in law] be liable, the liability falls on the school.

If in doubt though consult a legal bod and make the school fully aware of the situation from your point of view and get everything in writing.

Hope this helps...sorry it a late reply, I've just joined up and spotted your thread.

Paul