Virgin mobile sued by virgin

A TEXAS FAMILY is suing Virgin mobile phone after Beardie's band used an unauthorised picture of their 16 year-old daughter in an advertising campaign.

The family of Alison Chang says Virgin Mobile grabbed the picture from Flickr and failed to credit the photographer.

Virgin Mobile Australia ran a campaign based around the picture called "Are You With Us Or What?"

The picture of Chang flashing a peace sign was taken in April by Alison's youth counsellor, who posted it that day on his Flickr page. In the ad, Virgin Mobile printed the campaign slogan "Dump your pen friend" over Alison's picture and also says "Free text virgin to virgin."

The line did not go down well with Chang's friends who took the Michael a bit. Her church friends also mocked her in a truly Christian manner.

According to Associated Press, the family accused the companies of libel and invasion of Chang's privacy. The suit seeks unspecified damages for Chang and the photographer, Justin Ho-Wee Wong.

The case looks a bit shakey to us. The youth counsellor chose a sharing licence from Creative Commons that allows others to reuse work if they credit the photographer and say where the photo was taken. His Flickr page appears at the bottom of the ad. Unless calling a 16 year old a virgin is libel in Texas, we can't see how that side of the case stacks up in court either.

More here. µ