Woman's MIL won't stop using photos of her daughter to promote her business.
"She’s using our daughter’s photos in ads again"
fireflyflies80
Long story short: Just No Step MIL (JNSMIL) used our daughter’s photos, birth date, and other identifying info in ads and promotions for her business on social media and various web sites for years.
We were not on Facebook, etc, and did not find out that she was doing this until last summer. We confronted her ande my enabling FIL. They got mad at us for catching her, and they went no contact (trash took itself out) for the past year.
I have been keeping an eye out for her to do this again because she is a horrible excuse for a human being. Welp. That day has come. She blasted promotional materials with our daughter’s image, her name and her birthday last week. At this point, I don’t know what else to do but turn to serious legal action.
So far, informally asking her to stop has failed. If we are finally forced to turn to serious legal action, because her business is hosted on a platform we will also have to request a cease and disist order. I think it is possible that, if we do that, she may lose her selling platform and she would very likely go nuclear.
What do we need to do to batten down the hatches? I am a lawyer and we retained a lawyer to deal with the legal issues, so I am not looking for legal advice. But for those who have been through this level of conflict, I do need some practical advice.
If anyone can give some advice as to how to prepare for the craziest possible scenarios, it would be greatly appreciated. She is mentally unstable and I’m afraid of what she is capable of.
Also, this is in my post history but just to be clear, we have never allowed photos of our daughter online and never posted them ourselves. My MIL knew this, disagreed with our rule, and started using our daughter’s photos to promote her business via social media/ads/promotional emails almost immediately after she was born.
We did not find out about this for years because we’re not on social media. She got the photos from a family iPhone album. She’s cut off now but she saved all the older ones from before we cut her off last summer.
Here were the top rated comments from readers:
Mobile_Philosophy764
I mean if she loses her business, she loses her business. You said no, she did it anyway. Her consequences aren't your problem. Cease & Disist time.
TheBaney
If you report it and she loses her platform, she's responsible because she chose to use media she knows she doesn't have the rights to use. That's not on you.
The OP responded here:
fireflyflies80
Oh I don’t feel guilty about it at all. This is FA meets FO. But I do suspect she will become even more unhinged.
yourattention_please
As far as preparing for the nuclear explosion- cameras, and motion sensors would be good. You cant really bubble wrap yourselves well enough before she does something nutso because you need a reason for a restraining order or whatever order works in these cases. Just keep one eye open and cameras around.
tesselate01
Don’t mess around. Take her to the cleaners. I’d be livid and feel violated if someone was secretly posting photos of my child online. You just don’t know what ends up on the dark web these days or where those photos end up and for what purpose. It just scares me so much. Good on you for protecting your child.
Wingman06714
Using your child's info without your consent is a crime. File charges, sue her, force her to take it down. Go NC.
Swiss_Miss_77
I would say bump your security. Prepare your home and records for potential CPS visit. And personally speaking, I would sue her a** because while I am NOT a lawyer, from posts I have seen elsewhere, I'm pretty sure what she is doing is also illegal since she doesnt have permission and is using it for advertising.
I would sue and demand she be forced to hand over her phone/ cloud/ computers/ ipad/ storage devices/ etc to an IT specialist who will remove the photos from all platforms accessible by her and then have the courts enforce that she is NOT allowed to profit from your child's images. So, if she does it after this, shes violating multiple court orders and will be in big trouble.