Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois

Re: illegal photography

It was not illegal for you to take this photograph, assuming you were not told you could not take photographs prior to taking it. Since it is private property, the owners of the property can make such rules, but there is no law that says you cannot take photographs from anywhere you are lawfully entitled to be. There are restrictions on what you can do with the photograph, e.g., commercial purposes, publishing them with the intent to harass or embarrass, etc.

Obviously, the dirty sink is a bit of a sore spot. You might want to consider tranferring to a school that does not have quite so much to hide....

Re: illegal photography

Attorney Moens gave you a good answer.

I would only add that it is possible that you were previously told you cannot take photographs inside your cosmetology school, even if you never heard it directly from the director or any other person prior to taking the photo of the dirty sink.

For example, you might have signed an agreement when you first became a student that you would not photograph inside the building. Or, there might be public notice signs posted in obvious locations warning that photography is not permitted on that private property.

So, you should think long and hard about any pre-existing photography prohibitions that might have been in effect at the time you took the photograph.

However, generally speaking, I certainly agree with Attorney Moens that it was not illegal for you to take the photo of the dirty sink, absent any prior notice that photography was prohibited on the private property.