In a message dated 5/1/2006 9:53:52 PM Eastern Standard Time, clifflamere@nycap.rr.com writes: If Marilyn tells us that it was a professionally taken photo, it will not change the things I have said above. From what she has said so far, it could not have been assumed that it was professionally taken. I have been a non-professional photographer for two weddings of young relatives. It would be natural to take a photo of the wedding party. Marilyn, do you know who took the photo? If so, do you know when, or about when, the person died? Cliff Cliff- Even given the circumstances you suggest--if the photo was not *published* because it was taken by a non-professional and copies were never sold...the fact remains that Marilyn's question was: "How can this be allowed without ever seeking permission from us?" The answer is still the same--that permission need not be requested of the family of the bride and groom as they would not be the copyright-holders even if there is still potentially a copyright in existence regarding the photo unless, of course, the photo was taken by the family of the bride or groom. In any case, most definitely permission isn't required to use the name of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding--these are facts and don't belong to anyone. Joan

It seems to me that there is another issue here beyond that of copyright. It is an issue of privacy rights and publishing a photo without a modeling release. A photographer may own the copyright to his/her photo, but the people in the photo (and possibly their heirs) have rights to how their images are used. I found some interesting info on model releases at http://www.danheller.com/model-release.html Barbara Leak ----- Original Message ----- > > Even given the circumstances you suggest--if the photo was not > *published* > because it was taken by a non-professional and copies were never > sold...the > fact remains that Marilyn's question was: "How can this be allowed > without ever > seeking permission from us?" > > The answer is still the same--that permission need not be requested of the > family of the bride and groom as they would not be the copyright-holders > even > if there is still potentially a copyright in existence regarding the > photo > unless, of course, the photo was taken by the family of the bride or > groom. In > any case, most definitely permission isn't required to use the name of > the > bride and groom and the date of the wedding--these are facts and don't > belong > to anyone. > > Joan