Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in New York

Re: permission to use likeness

To be safe, she should get their permission. She could end up being sued if she does not.

Re: permission to use likeness

The answer to your question depends upon how "recognizable" the other people in the photograph are. Under New York Civil Rights Law Sections 50 and 51, you cannot use another persons name or photograph "for profit" without first obtaining their written consent. If your daughter were to "sell" the photograph the other persons appearing in the photo might be able to claim that the unauthorized use of their photo "violated their civil rights", but they would have to establish that their faces were clearly "recognizable." Moreover, even if they prevail in doing so, under most circumstances it is rather difficult to prove that they have suffered significant "damages" as a result of the unauthorized use of their photo (unless, of course, they happen to be nude) As such, in most cases persons appearing in the background of photo's rarely seek to take any action for "unauthorized use" of their photographs. There is, however, no absolute guarantee that they might not seek to take action, but with the exceptions of nude photos or photos which are sold for large sums of money, persons who are captured in the background of photographs rarely do anything about it.

I hope this is helpful.