MySpace

[spangle1033]

Oh Soc, I hope you can help!

All parties reside in GA.  BM had legal and physical custody.

An email was sent to NCP 2 days ago with a link to a website that he was instructed to view.  Turns out it was CP's MySpace Account.  On her picture page are 4 pictures of the minor children (ages 5 and 8) of the marriage with captions below spelling out their First and Middle names.

On CP's profie page, she lists the town they live in, the night college she attends and the fact that she is divorced and single.  They live in a small town with one elementary school, so it would be easy for anyone to find where the children attend.  

NCP is very upset due to the high incidence of people using such information to find / stalk children.  He has sent CP 2 emails (one certified) requesting that she remove the pictures and information and outlining the dangers of not doing so.

CP has not complied, although she has logged onto her MySpace account twice since receiving the emails.

In addition, the pictures of the children she is using were actually taken by me (SM) and reside in a private photo-sharing account maintained by Yahoo Photos.  CP was allowed to view the pictures with a password (from Easter) after she requested several times.  She has since been blocked from viewing the photos.

Additionally, DH has contacted MySpace and requested that the photos and names of his minor children be removed from the site.  He is awaiting a reply.

Basically, we are looking for the quickest way to get these photos and names off the site.

1.  Has CP violated any copyright laws by copying and re-pasting photos from a Private site onto the Public Internet?

2.  Are Public Websites obligated to remove photos / names of minor children if a parent requests them to?

3.  What further steps can we take if CP and the Website refuse to remove the information?

Thank You Soc!

[socrateaser]

>1.  Has CP violated any copyright laws by copying and
>re-pasting photos from a Private site onto the Public
>Internet?

Every expression of an idea, such as a photograph is born with a copyright, assuming that you can prove you are the author of the photo. So, using the photos without permission is a violation of copyright, but the next issue is whether you granted a license to do more than merely view the photos at the private site from where they were copied? Furthermore, the copyright law provides for what is known as the "fair use doctrine," which permits certain educational, scientific, socially relevant uses of other people's works, without license.

Generally, the threshold issue is whether the user of the copyrighted work is obtaining pecuniary gain from the materials. In this case, that's not likely, so a copyright violation suit won't get you anywhere.

>2.  Are Public Websites obligated to remove photos / names of
>minor children if a parent requests them to?

No. You don't have either legal or physical custody, so you have no right to demand anything with regard to the minor children, absent a court order. Your case here is restricted to the photos themselves.

>
>3.  What further steps can we take if CP and the Website
>refuse to remove the information?

If you genuinely think that the amount of information on MySpace is a danger to the children, then you should file an emergency ex-parte motion for a temporary restraining order against the other parent to have them removed, on grounds that her actions affirmatively injure the child(ren)'s best interests, and they may suffer irreparable harm if your motion is not granted.