“Fortunately, it’s a harmless story,” said Nelson. It’s called Fair Use.īut this Newnan couple said you’ve still got to get the story right. Journalists are allowed to air publicly-posted photos without permission if it’s clear they’re a key part of the story. “That would be the best advice because it’s simply too easy to copy.” “If it’s something you think is highly valuable, don’t post it on social media,” he said.

It’s simple to do online, but how many of us would even take that step? Both attorneys also suggested a watermark on any photos you don’t want stolen. “But in order to enforce that right, (you) must register with the copyright office.” “You have an ownership right just by the creation of the work,” pointed out Nicole Morris, who was also the former managing patent counsel at Coca-Cola. “But it would be really difficult to bring a lawsuit.”Īccording to Holbrook, most of the time the legal costs just aren’t worth it. “In theory, whoever took the picture and copied it would be (in trouble),” said Tim Holbrook, vice provost at Emory Law. We asked two Emory University School of Law intellectual property experts what they thought. How can you protect a picture you post online? There are some simple ways. “We were letting them know you just can’t take someone’s stuff and use somebody’s stuff without their permission.” “Money was not what we’re after,” said Nelson. They reached out to as many of the sites as possible, but say they got no direct response. “The whole hot thing now is fake news, that you would completely make up a story and share it without fact-checking it at all,” Nelson complained. Another Patriots fan site reported they were pretty sure the picture showed Cam coming out of a pizza joint close to the stadium.ĮSPN even aired the photos, the network giving a photo credit to that Boston Sports Mike twitter user and another man Jason and Ashley say they’ve never heard of.įor the Newnan couple, one a teacher and the other a tree surgeon who rarely dabble in the world of social media, the experience was eye-opening. “It kind of goes back to how easy something that you post can be viral in hours and you not even really have any knowledge of it,” Castles said. Some Patriots fans even suggested this was their new QB coming out of a pizza joint near the Pats stadium. The RaceTrac is on Bullsboro Drive in Newnan. “I was like no, they were actually taken on Bullsboro.” “Everyone was saying the pictures were taken in Foxborough,” remarked Castles. He got nearly 4000 retweets and more than 12,000 likes. “Cam Newton has arrived in Foxborough, Massachusetts just 2 half hours ago before he makes the official contract signing to be a member of the New England Patriots,” the caption read.Ī Twitter user named Boston Sports Mike also posted the pictures on July 3, again announcing Cam Newton had arrived in Foxborough. Not many Auburn fans on his friends list.ĭespite the lack of buzz on his page, the next week those two pictures somehow appeared on a Patriots fan page with a completely different narrative:

We should tell you Castles is a Bulldog and Falcons fan. The photos would get only 19 likes and 1 share. The couple never approached him.Ĭastles uploaded the two pictures to his Facebook page that same day writing “This man. When he showed the photos to the FOX 5 I-Team, we saw the short burst of video that accompanies the photo on the camera roll. Jason Castles and Ashley Nelson still can't believe how their fun pictures of Cam Newton got so misused.Ĭastles said he took his iPhone and snapped two photos of Newton.

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