[Will Brocklebank]

I was in the Apple Store in Regent's Street and was getting my first hands-on time with the MacBook Air and I was wowed by the size (really very small), the weight (super slim) and the overall quality - and I thought I'd try out the funky gestures in iPhoto. So I open it up and obviously it comes pre-loaded with some Events for people to browse through and amongst them is Tropical Beach House - and, this is where it gets a little odd, about 8 of these glossy, people-having-fun-and-larking-around marketing type shots (you know the sort of things that make up the images in the iLife templates) were taken at a rental villa that I own in the Caribbean. The place is completely uncredited but here are a group of young people sipping beer by the pool, snapping the sunset from the dock, laughing on the terrace etc etc!

You can see the whole lot of shots, and the shots I took of the same images on iPhoto on machines throughout the Apple Store (2 MacBook Airs, 1 Black MacBook, 1 Mac Pro) here:

Apple Store shots of Gun Point, Tortola - a photoset on Flickr

And the main website here for comparison purposes: GUN POINT, TORTOLA, BVI - HOME

The house looks great which I am thrilled about (as it would in Apple ad-world) but surely this is tantamount to marketing, and shouldn't Apple maybe have contacted me to say that it was using them? The guests did come and pay normal rates for the week but there was no suggestion that they were anything other than holidaying types.

What do you guys think?

[rickey939]

Apple Store shots of Gun Point.....wow, I was thinking of something else entirely!

Phew.

[Laminar]

And all of the women in the photos are my girlfriends.

[The Godfather]

If you didn't give them permission, you could sue them for much money. It could help pay some of your hefty mortgage
To add insult to injury, they didn't acknowledge your resort, which could have given you a nice influx of visitors.
I mean, if that's really your resort.

[Doofy]

Nice house dude. What the hell are you still doing in Ken's nightmare when you could be in your pool?

[starman]

Back when 10.2 came out, Apple asked for my permission to put my app on all their systems in-store to wake them every morning (this was before the rule was put into Energy Saver).

Are the pics from flickr under some kind of Creative Commons?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by starman 

Are the pics from flickr under some kind of Creative Commons?

The pics aren't from Flickr.

They're pics taken by Apple people at this house and used as demo material.

IOW, they were not taken by the OP, and whatever rights are involved are probably only at issue between Apple and the copyright holder (who most certainly sold them to Apple or took the photographs for Apple).

I doubt that the OP has any recourse at all for photographs taken on property that was rented from him at the time.

[starman]

Whoops, I misread.

[ort888]

Yeah, I doubt there is anything you can do. For all you know, they are candid shots of Apple employees real vacations that won some sort of internal contest. I seriously doubt that they would schedule some sort of professional photo shoot for the iPhoto demo shots.

I would just be happy that 1.) you own such a beautiful house and 2.) it's now sorta famous, sorta.

[SeSawaya]

ok, first of all, can you give me a great rate on your villa????
Having never been to the caribbean, I'd sure appreciate it!

I'll even play for you.... Kent Arnsbarger - Steel Drum - we could work out a trade?? ;^)

2nd of all....if you're lucky enough to live by the water, you're lucky enough.

[DeathToWindows]

As far as I recall, it'd be an issue if the subject was a person who hadn't given permission, but a house doesn't need a release...

[Andy8]

3 of the photos used are identical to those used on the official Gun Point website:

index.html = Pool and the Point

amenities.html = The Palm Tree (the levels have been adjusted here)

living.html = Pool and the Point (again) + Outdoor seating

[- - e r i k - -]

If true, the only thing you can get out of this is marketing to Apple geeks:

As seen in iPhoto™

[d4nth3m4n]

are you hiring? i don't give a crap what you do...

[Ratspittle]

at first glance I thought your user name was "Will Brokeback"! Sorry, not trying to insult you...just thought it was funny. BTW-nice house, what do you do for a living that affords you such luxuries?

[The Milkman]

I don't know the law in the US or wherever the rental agreement was signed but if there's no clause that forbids taking pictures there's not much you can do.
More to the point: why would you? Stop looking for excuses to sue people and start enjoying life.
(If this was not the point of your post, ignore the above)