Asked in Copyright and Criminal Law for Oklahoma

Q: Is it illegal for someone to take photos off of my Facebook account of my child to post on there account

Someone I don’t know took photos I had posted on my Facebook account and posted them on their Facebook account pretending my child was theirs

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1 Lawyer Answer
Steve Charles Vondran
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Answered
  • Intellectual Property Lawyer
  • San Francisco, CA

A: If you took the image, it is your image (i.e., you own the copyright - even if you never registered it). Being that the use by the imposter would not appear to be commercial in nature, suing for copyright infringement may not be the most exciting option (especially since you cannot get attorney fees or "statutory damages" if the image is not registered. However, since you own the copyright, you could send Facebook a DMCA takedown (making sure to follow all the applicable rules to do that), and have them take down the photo since: 1. it appears to infringe your copyright and 2. It violates their terms of service (at least, that is what I would argue along the lines of posing as an imposter and possibly child endangerment). This is general legal information only and not legal advice. See you at the top! Attorney Steve®

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