I was told to stop taking pictures on private property. I was allowed to be on the property, and I was taking pictures of my vehicle, nothin...

Question

I was told to stop taking pictures on private property. I was allowed to be on the property, and I was taking pictures of my vehicle, nothing else. I was told to delete the pictures by the property owner, which I did not do.

Am I allowed to put the pictures that I took on my website? I did not take any more pictures after I was told to stop, but I am curious about what the law is regarding the pictures that I had already taken. I am assuming that those were legal because I had not been told not to take pictures at that point.

Answer

A property owner can consent to your entry to the property. The owner can also revoke that consent. If the owner consented to your being on the property to take pictures, you can keep the pictures as long as they were taken before you were told to get off the property.

You can post the pictures on your website. The issue is whether the property owner can claim that making your pictures public is causing damages. Understand that anyone can file a lawsuit. The defendant then has to go to the trouble and expense of hiring an attorney to defend the lawsuit, answer discovery, go to court, etc. Even if you win the lawsuit, you lose.

The cheapest thing you can do is to take other pictures of your car to post on your website unless you have the property owners written permission for you to do so.