The lawsuit sounds frivolous, but wait until you hear why Virgin Mobile Australia is being sued. The pre-paid wireless carrier recently ran a billboard advertising campaign that unlawfully used Alison Chang’s photo (taken by photographer Justin Ho-Wee Wong) in a derogatory fashion.
Apparently, Chang’s youth counselor at her church snapped a pic of her holding up the universal “peace sign” (you know, two fingers) at an April church car wash. The image was posted up on Flickr by Wong, under the Creative Commons shared licensing scheme (which allows work to be reproduced and reused as long as credit to the photographer and location of the photo).
So, some advertising ‘tard saw this image on Flickr and thought it would be a good idea to ad slogans like, “Dump your pen friend” and, “Free text virgin to virgin.” Credit was not given to the photographer or location.
As you can imagine, that second slogan brought down a world of ridicule for the church-going 16-year old. So, Chang’s family is suing Virgin Mobile for libel and invasion of privacy – and is seeking unspecified damages.
Go get ’em Chang! These guys deserve to pay up for their callous and half-baked advertising campaign. Just don’t take too much of their money, we actually kind of like their service.
[Via: Yahoo]