It was on this Hive platform, in one of its very strict communities, that I learnt about the depth of licensing for photos and videos. Under normal circumstances, from what I know, one cannot capture a photo containing other people's faces, especially those who are unrelated to the photographer, and post that photo on a 'sensitive' social media platform. As a matter of fact, one cannot even snap a photo of a mural created by another person and post it on a sensitive social media platform without referencing the artist or, at the very least, the owner of the building or property where the mural is located. Yeah, all these and many more are considered wrong practices.
Hold on, the sensitivity of the platform where the photo is posted matters a lot. The likes of X, Instagram, Facebook, and others do not pay much attention to copyright issues. That's why virtually any photo can be taken anywhere and posted without being questioned. Problems usually arise only when someone finds the post offensive or takes it personally.
On another note, there are some of these things that should be overlooked because, under normal circumstances, whatever is put in public is generally considered to be accessible to the public. Yeah, even when we attend public events, we are naturally exposed to appearing in other people's photos or videos, and this has become a normal part of modern-day life. Someone can post those photos or videos containing other people's faces without breaking any rule. The real issue arises when the photo is intentionally taken for a malicious purpose. An example is deliberately taking a selfie where a married man is captured in an awkward situation with another woman who is not his wife in the background, and then posting the photo on the internet for everyone to see. This kind of photo, although taken in a public place, is no longer just an ordinary or innocent photo but one intentionally used to set someone up.
So, if the photo is not intentionally taken to capture someone in a compromising situation, then there is usually no issue. However, if the photo is deliberately taken to expose or incriminate someone, then it becomes a problem.
Also, someone can innocently take photos in public that happen to feature other people's faces and later use those photos on social media, yet the post could still result in unwanted trouble. Example is a situation where a wanted person is accidentally captured in the background of someone's photo, and the published image ends up causing serious problems. In such a situation, the innocent photographer could be tracked down either by the wanted person or by the authorities searching for that individual.
So, if we think about it critically, capturing other people's faces in your photos is not always ideal unless they are people within the same group or are intentionally part of the picture. However, if they are complete strangers, it is generally not a good idea to display their faces publicly. That is one of the reasons many modern cameras and smartphones now have blur features that allow us to easily blur the faces of other people.
Thanks for reading.
Photo: Chatgpt edited
