Law

I'd like some concrete, legal answers, please, and not just what people think ought to be. I'd probably agree with what ought to be, but I need this in sorta black and white, as it were.

Basically, I'm a member of a band (in the UK) and also on the committee, from where I run their website and edit their newsletter. We have a number of children in the band aged from around ten up to sixteen/eighteen. Like most groups, we like to take photos of the entire band and this is obviously going to include the kids from time to time. Since we sometimes use these photos in our publicity - leaflets, on the website and on a private Flickr URL, then the issue of parental consent raises its head.

We have, in the past, asked parents when their kids join to sign a form to say whether or not they give consent. However, as members have come and gone this has gone by the board. The occasional parent who does object tells us so and we act accordingly.

We'd like to get something a little more definitive in place, though. At the moment, we have a form on our newsletter that parents are asked to sign if they don't want their kids' photos being used, but one of the committee doesn't think this is enough. I'm inclined to agree.

Must we get a definite yes or no from parents by law? Or is the parental consent thing only a matter of courtesy and protecting ourselves from private action. And what about adults? If I have taken a photograph of an adult band member, I know that the copyright to the image belongs to me as the photographer. But has the subject any legal right to ask me not to publish it - assuming it's being used only for band purposes and not for anything illicit?

We're a good-natured lot and have hitherto dealt with such things civilly on all sides. But it only takes one newcomer to upset the apple cart and we're done for. We'd like to know, therefore, exactly where we stand in the eyes of the