onedef92
08-16-2013, 11:48am
Georgia teen wants $2 million after school uses Facebook photo without permission
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m111/onedef92/facebook23n-1-web_zps4b80e5e2.jpg
When bikini-clad Chelsea Chaney posed next to a cutout of Snoop Dogg during a family vacation, she had no idea that the photo would be shown to hundreds of strangers at a Fayette County Schools district seminar. An administrator used the photo to demonstrate the dangers of posting to social media.
By Carol Kuruvilla / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 22, 2013, 5:32 PM.
Georgia student Chelsea Chaney believed only her friends and friends of friends could see the Facebook photo of herself in a red bikini standing next to a Snoop Dogg cutout.
You never know who’s creeping through your Facebook profile.
To prove that point, a high school administrator in Fayette County, Ga., grabbed a revealing photo from a student’s Facebook page and showed it to hundreds of students and teachers at a districtwide seminar.
The student in the photo, 17-year-old Chelsea Chaney, is now suing her district for $2 million, saying the picture was used without her permission.
In the photo, taken during a family trip, Chaney wears a red bikini and poses next to a cardboard cutout of rapper Snoop Dogg. The young woman, now a college freshman at the University of Georgia, says she posted the photo to the social media site thinking that only her friends and friends of friends could view it.
She was shocked to learn that hundreds of complete strangers had seen the photo during the seminar. The Fayette County Schools Director of Technology allegedly used it to demonstrate the lasting effects of posting photos on social media sites.
The photo was shown with the title, “Once it’s there, it’s there to stay,” Chaney said. Her family says it was used out of context to suggest that she was a promiscuous abuser of alcohol.
“I cried a lot,” Chaney told WSB-TV. "It never crossed my mind that this would ever, ever happen to me."
The school reportedly apologized for the incident in a letter. They said that the picture was randomly chosen for the event.
“I just don't’ think it’s random,” Chaney said. “It wasn’t my main picture. You had to go looking through it.”
The school chose not to comment, but told WSB-TV that it had filed a motion seeking to dismiss the case.
But Chaney’s attorney Pete Wellborn says the administrator’s actions are a violation of law.
"Their idea that putting something on Facebook gives them a license to steal it and carte blanche to do with it what they did is wrong ethically, it's wrong morally and it's absolutely wrong legally," Wellborn said.
Chaney wants to make sure this doesn’t happen to other students.
"I wish it was taken more seriously and gotten a more sincere apology," she said.
Read more: Georgia teen wants $2 million after school uses Facebook photo without permission - NY Daily News (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teen-sues-2-million-school-facebook-photo-permission-article-1.1379754#ixzz2c9S0f5d5)
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m111/onedef92/facebook23n-1-web_zps4b80e5e2.jpg
When bikini-clad Chelsea Chaney posed next to a cutout of Snoop Dogg during a family vacation, she had no idea that the photo would be shown to hundreds of strangers at a Fayette County Schools district seminar. An administrator used the photo to demonstrate the dangers of posting to social media.
By Carol Kuruvilla / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 22, 2013, 5:32 PM.
Georgia student Chelsea Chaney believed only her friends and friends of friends could see the Facebook photo of herself in a red bikini standing next to a Snoop Dogg cutout.
You never know who’s creeping through your Facebook profile.
To prove that point, a high school administrator in Fayette County, Ga., grabbed a revealing photo from a student’s Facebook page and showed it to hundreds of students and teachers at a districtwide seminar.
The student in the photo, 17-year-old Chelsea Chaney, is now suing her district for $2 million, saying the picture was used without her permission.
In the photo, taken during a family trip, Chaney wears a red bikini and poses next to a cardboard cutout of rapper Snoop Dogg. The young woman, now a college freshman at the University of Georgia, says she posted the photo to the social media site thinking that only her friends and friends of friends could view it.
She was shocked to learn that hundreds of complete strangers had seen the photo during the seminar. The Fayette County Schools Director of Technology allegedly used it to demonstrate the lasting effects of posting photos on social media sites.
The photo was shown with the title, “Once it’s there, it’s there to stay,” Chaney said. Her family says it was used out of context to suggest that she was a promiscuous abuser of alcohol.
“I cried a lot,” Chaney told WSB-TV. "It never crossed my mind that this would ever, ever happen to me."
The school reportedly apologized for the incident in a letter. They said that the picture was randomly chosen for the event.
“I just don't’ think it’s random,” Chaney said. “It wasn’t my main picture. You had to go looking through it.”
The school chose not to comment, but told WSB-TV that it had filed a motion seeking to dismiss the case.
But Chaney’s attorney Pete Wellborn says the administrator’s actions are a violation of law.
"Their idea that putting something on Facebook gives them a license to steal it and carte blanche to do with it what they did is wrong ethically, it's wrong morally and it's absolutely wrong legally," Wellborn said.
Chaney wants to make sure this doesn’t happen to other students.
"I wish it was taken more seriously and gotten a more sincere apology," she said.
Read more: Georgia teen wants $2 million after school uses Facebook photo without permission - NY Daily News (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teen-sues-2-million-school-facebook-photo-permission-article-1.1379754#ixzz2c9S0f5d5)