What are the laws regarding using family photos of siblings on a website?

I have been putting together a website to showcase my family. What are the laws regarding using family photos of siblings on this website? Can anyone legally make me remove their photo from the site? The photos were either taken by our parents, or myself or other siblings. There is probably no real way to say exactly who snapped each photo. I am just curious to know what the legalities would be in a case like this one.

Don on Oct 6, 2008

Hi Don. The person that pressed the shutter-release owns the copyright. But posting family photos on a family website sounds like fair use or even de minimis (too trivial to be of legal concern) so copyright should not be an issue. People have privacy rights but since they were aware that their photo was being taken for family viewing, then consent might be implied. I don’t see how a person could use a court to compel you to remove such photos.

fair use, de minimis, privacy

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