Mom upset after son's photos scalped from website

Last Updated: Saturday, September 22, 2007 | 8:13 PM ET

CBC News

A Winnipeg mom was shocked to find pictures of her son that she had placed on the internet had been used to create a new personality for the boy on an international website.

"I felt sick to my stomach. I just felt queasy and started crying," Lisa Funk said after finding her son had been renamed and given a bogus personality using pictures that she had posted on Flickr.com, a popular photo-sharing site.

Lisa Funk felt sick when she saw pictures of her son posted on a website under another name.
(CBC)

"He's the most important person in my life," and her favourite subject, she said. 

But the boy's image was scalped, he was renamed Billy, and Portuguese titles were added.

"The titles are saying 'I love you, Billy', and one seems to be a love poem or something," she said.

Parents around the world are banding together to take legal action against the site.

The use of the photos may be creepy, but under U.S. law, they're not pornographic and therefore not illegal.

However, the use of the pictures might be a violation of copyright laws.

But even copyrighted images have been appropriated. Manitoba Telecom Services used pictures from Flickr in an ad campaign, without the consent of the owners.

The company thought that everything on Flickr was in the public domain, but has now removed the pictures, said spokesman Greg Burch. "There was no intent to cause harm or concern."

A Dallas family sued Australia's Virgin Mobile phone company on Wednesday after it used the daughter's image on billboards and web ads without her consent.

The family said Virgin Mobile grabbed the pictures of Alison Chang from Flickr.