Former-McD’s Employee Convinces Getty to Remove Photo of Her Taken Without Permission

A former McDonald’s employee in Australia is relieved after stock photo agency Getty removed her picture from the service after multiple requests. 

Featuring Kennedy Reese working at a McDonald’s while pregnant and fifteen years old, the photo in question was typically featured in negative articles and was taken without her knowledge or permission. 

The photo was brought to Reese’s attention by a friend who saw it used in an article discussing “Brisbane’s bullied Macca workers,” PetaPixel reports. 

As often happens with stock photos, the picture took on a life of its own and began to appear in articles everywhere and often in a negative format. 

One such article discussed how pregnant McDonald’s employees could not get uniforms that fit, for example. 

To make matters worse, the image was selling for $USD 600 and, because it was taken in public and was used for editorial instead of commercial purposes, Reese had very little legal recourse with Getty. 

So, why did Getty finally remove the image? 

The company claims that they did it as a show of good faith in the person featured in the photo. 

Really don’t know what that means in this context but Reese is relieved as can be imagined. 

“At first, Getty was quite polite and said they would look into it, but then they consulted their legal department and said they hadn’t done anything illegal…They claimed little responsibility and claimed the third parties should be contacted. [But] it’s hard to ask people to delete the photo when they’ve already paid $600 for it,” she said of Getty’s actions.

What do you think of Getty’s move in this case? 

How would you feel if someone took a picture of you then used that as a stock photo for largely negative articles? 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below if you like. 

Don’t forget to check out some of our other photography news articles here on Light Stalking by clicking this link here.

[PetaPixel]