Staff using clients photos on their personal Instagram

[SDec]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering how do you deal with your salon staff posting photos of salon clients on their personal Instagram? I have salon Instagram account already and that's were we post all pics of great hair. However, I found out recently that some staff members post these photos on their private accounts without tagging salon name. I consider all clients to be salon clients. All staff members are in full time employment. Surely there must be a way to protect these photos if they were taken in the salon and stop staff self promoting on personal accounts? Should they at least ask for permission from the management to share?

 

[SparklySnow]

I'm not sure Hun so can't help you, but I think the photographer has the rights to their own photos. Maybe someone else can help more x

 

[pure]

How have the staff accessed the pictures? If they're copying them from your account make sure you have watermarked all photos with the salon name prior to publishing them.

 

[Lauren121]

Does there personal account state where they work in the bio?

I think the only way is to get them watermarked will tell potential clients where to book if they want there hair done by them

 

[AcidPerm]

This is covered under Intellectual Property Law.

In a nutshell, any hairdressing creation your employees undertake during their hours of employment (even if off-site at a wedding), 'belongs' to you. They cannot take or use photographs of the work without your express permission.

Whether you watermark the photos is irrelevant, although clearly it's a sensible precaution when uploading photographs online.

You must explain to your staff that they are breaking the law by taking any pictures and/or putting them on their own social media accounts. They may believe that as they created a particular colour or hairstyle, they can take and post pictures of it, but in law, they are wrong.

You really must insist that they stop taking pictures of any hair done at work and if they break the rules, they are liable to lose their job.

Obviously, any self employed staff own their own work and the Salon cannot use their photographs in their advertising without seeking permission from the self employed person.

 

[CatherineRose]

I don't see the issue ? If they did the work then why can't they self promote ? Someone might see one of the photos on their ig and enquire where they work and book in?! Then surely that's a good thing.

If your going to be so strict then staff might decide to do hair out of work and then post those instead

 

[SparklySnow]

I think it's great that your staff are obviously enthusiastic about their jobs, and proud of their work. Why not politely ask for the salon name to be tagged, and then be glad of all the extra publicity [emoji2]

 

[jamiereid92]

AcidPerm has explained the law and she knows her stuff!

However, you've gotta keep a good relationship with your staff. If they are promoting it to do hair at home then I see your point. If not then all they are doing is attracting more business to your salon.

Just ask them to tag your salon in the pictures.

If my boss told me I wasn't allowed to post pictures on my facebook or instagram I wouldn't like it

 

[AcidPerm]

....If they are promoting it to do hair at home then I see your point. If not then all they are doing is attracting more business to your salon.
Just ask them to tag your salon in the pictures.
If my boss told me I wasn't allowed to post pictures on my facebook or instagram I wouldn't like it

That's a fair point.

It's a tricky issue to negotiate as it requires trust and honesty on both parties. I think if you know your staff and they're loyal and unlikely to poach clients, then you could allow them to post watermarked pictures only and tag the salon.

The problem arises when you have one rogue member of staff who spoils it for the team.

 

[SDec]

Thank you everyone for replying. I took everyone's advice on board and have spoken to my staff. I've politely explained to them any photos taken in the salon belong to the salon but if they wish to share their work on social media they first of all have to ask me so I can approve it, ask clients if they agree their photo should be made public and tag the salon in each photo. They all understood this and accepted it.
I do believe that it is really important from the owners perspective to address this issue so there is no confusion what belongs to whom.

 

[Lapetite]

Thank you everyone for replying. I took everyone's advice on board and have spoken to my staff. I've politely explained to them any photos taken in the salon belong to the salon but if they wish to share their work on social media they first of all have to ask me so I can approve it, ask clients if they agree their photo should be made public and tag the salon in each photo. They all understood this and accepted it.
I do believe that it is really important from the owners perspective to address this issue so there is no confusion what belongs to whom.

Buy a salon I pad only pics to be taken on that, then you pop your logo in & upload them

 

[EssexFreelance]

Encourage them to have their social media hair related or each member has a new hair account but they have to tag the salon in. Lots of salons do this and will regram from the accounts. I know before social media everyone would have freaked at having staff being contactable by clients but I think that’s all changing. Have a look at what other salons do and you will see they often are tagging their staff profile in pictures.

You won’t stop people using those pics because they are on your social media, when I left a salon I took my pics off their social media for my own use and so did my friends

 

[AcidPerm]

You won’t stop people using those pics because they are on your social media, when I left a salon I took my pics off their social media for my own use and so did my friends

You might have done the work and taken the photographs but they are not YOUR PICTURES because the salon owner owns them as intellectual property.
You might illegally copy the pictures and post them on your own social media pages but if the salon owner chooses to sue you, you will lose and have to take down the photos and pay an amount in damages to the salon as determined by the courts.

Most salon owners probably won't sue, but there's always one who will. So if you are asked to remove them, then do so immediately and hope the salon owner chooses not to take it further.

 

[EssexFreelance]

You might have done the work and taken the photographs but they are not YOUR PICTURES because the salon owner owns them as intellectual property.
You might illegally copy the pictures and post them on your own social media pages but if the salon owner chooses to sue you, you will lose and have to take down the photos and pay an amount in damages to the salon as determined by the courts.

Most salon owners probably won't sue, but there's always one who will. So if you are asked to remove them, then do so immediately and hope the salon owner chooses not to take it further.

Thanks for that - I do understand I shouldn’t do it, once I had my own better ones it didn’t matter!

 

[Reidebot]

I am one of those people who have their own instagrams as I am documenting progress. I think as long as you tag your salon then it's fine. Instagram is a great place for promo.

You might have done the work and taken the photographs but they are not YOUR PICTURES because the salon owner owns them as intellectual property.
You might illegally copy the pictures and post them on your own social media pages but if the salon owner chooses to sue you, you will lose and have to take down the photos and pay an amount in damages to the salon as determined by the courts.

Most salon owners probably won't sue, but there's always one who will. So if you are asked to remove them, then do so immediately and hope the salon owner chooses not to take it further.

Now as for intellectual property this depends severely on context. I could take photography of a pet in a pet store. I do not own the pet how ever I do own the personal rights to the image. The copyright is a little bit on the greyer side.

Personal rights are because I took the photo with my own camera. Usually doing this is fine because there is no contract stating that I couldn't take the photo (a sign can work).

As for directly copying the image from your instagram, this is obviously infringing on copyright unless the person who did it has personal rights (ie/ if they took the photo and did the did the work). I only know all this because I do and have sold art and had to learn about it as I have been in a situation where someone tried to steal my art and claim it as theirs.

Now also please realise I am Australian so out laws may vary slightly. But the fact is if your stylist has personal rights then they aren't legally doing anything wrong unless you can prove they have transferred those rights over to you.

edit;
Just to add, ideas can come under personal rights as well. As long as they were publicly voiced.
And also two people can hold different forms of copyrights to one piece. So in this case both the boss and whoever photographed would have rights to use.

Say if I was hired by a wedding party to take photos, the commissioner has rights to use the photos and I could also add them to my portfolio.

You also have to look at the fact that these images are also not directly making money. Because that can play a big role in copyright infringement.

 

[AcidPerm]

I am one of those people who have their own instagrams as I am documenting progress. I think as long as you tag your salon then it's fine. Instagram is a great place for promo.
Now as for intellectual property this depends severely on context. I could take photography of a pet in a pet store. I do not own the pet how ever I do own the personal rights to the image. The copyright is a little bit on the greyer side.
You also have to look at the fact that these images are also not directly making money. Because that can play a big role in copyright infringement.

You're confusing copyright law and intellectual property law. They're quite different things.


Imagine that you're a highly qualified scientist who works for a top secret research centre and you've just invented a new type of computing device that's a thousand times more powerful than anything currently existing.

Who owns (the intellectual property of) your invention?
Can you run off to the nearest competitor and sell the idea to them and make yourself millions of dollars?

Answer: No.

Worldwide, intellectual property laws protect the employer/research centre who have spent
££££££/$$$$$$$ on providing the equipment and support and recruiting top class teams of staff to develop exciting new ideas.

Intellectual Property laws stop employees selling information/inventions to their rivals.

In the Salon world, this means that the employer owns the hairdressing work that you do whilst they are paying you. So you create a fabulous intricate upstyle for a wedding client. The salon owns the intellectual property relating to that upstyle. You cannot take pictures of it and call it your invention because it was created whilst you were being employed to create fabulous hairstyles.

Copyright of the photographs is irrelevant to this discussion because it's like walking into a top secret research centre and photographing their research notes. Presumably you accept that that would be quite wrong, legally and morally?

You shouldn't be taking pictures in the first place without the salon owners permission.

A lot of salon owners are unaware of how intellectual property laws work and so most won't bother stopping you taking pictures or tagging them but, if they refuse you permission, they are protected by years of case law.

It's not my opinion, it's the law.

 

[Reidebot]

You're confusing copyright law and intellectual property law. They're quite different things.


Imagine that you're a highly qualified scientist who works for a top secret research centre and you've just invented a new type of computing device that's a thousand times more powerful than anything currently existing.

Who owns (the intellectual property of) your invention?
Can you run off to the nearest competitor and sell the idea to them and make yourself millions of dollars?

Answer: No.

Worldwide, intellectual property laws protect the employer/research centre who have spent
££££££/$$$$$$$ on providing the equipment and support and recruiting top class teams of staff to develop exciting new ideas.

Intellectual Property laws stop employees selling information/inventions to their rivals.

In the Salon world, this means that the employer owns the hairdressing work that you do whilst they are paying you. So you create a fabulous intricate upstyle for a wedding client. The salon owns the intellectual property relating to that upstyle. You cannot take pictures of it and call it your invention because it was created whilst you were being employed to create fabulous hairstyles.

Copyright of the photographs is irrelevant to this discussion because it's like walking into a top secret research centre and photographing their research notes. Presumably you accept that that would be quite wrong, legally and morally?

You shouldn't be taking pictures in the first place without the salon owners permission.

A lot of salon owners are unaware of how intellectual property laws work and so most won't bother stopping you taking pictures or tagging them but, if they refuse you permission, they are protected by years of case law.

It's not my opinion, it's the law.

One could argue they go hand in hand.

As for intellectual property to an extent that also supports stylists. Say if I used my own technique to do the hair in salon that is considered intellectual property as it relates to my creativity and thought process. However a work place also owns rights as well. But this does not dispel an employees rights. I'll refer to my example of the photography. The photographer has a thought process to create an image. That side of things is intellectual property. If someone was to take one of my paintings and recreate it to the point that it is obvious they copied me it would be infringing on my intellectual rights as the thought process and idea was mine.

I would also like to say if an employee was to upload I feel they should credit the salon and vice versa. Bosses should be crediting staff by saying " This beautiful beliage by Jessica" or "Amazing soft waves by Annabelle".

Trust me. They made us full blown go through the laws over this. I'm not saying they 100% have rights. But they don't lack rights either. IT's a grey area because of the thought process that goes into things.

 

[AcidPerm]

No, I disagree.
Everything you create when you're being paid by an employer is 100% owned by the employer.
They are paying you TO BE CREATIVE.

Going back to the scientist analogy, they've employed the best scientists because they expect them to use their genius to develop new ideas. But the ideas are 100% owned by the company.

 

[vividamnesia]

Do you pay your stylists, cover the tax, pay stats as employees or are they rentals &or commish? Unless you define these terms clearly in a contract with the stylists & these are their own pics there is nothing you can do except write up a contract for them to sign stating your terms.

 

[mishayla]

i think youre reading to much into it... sounds like they are promoting their work which they do through your salon so anyone who asks will be told where to go anyway.