It pays to know who you are!

The picture on the coffee canister caught him cold. The man blinked, rubbed his eyes, and peered over his grocery cart at the image on the Taster's Choice coffee canister sitting on the store shelf. The face peering back at him was unmistakable. The sideburns were darker, and the lines around the eyes weren't there yet, but it was clearly him- Russell Christoff- an unassuming fifty-eight year old kindergarten teacher from Northern California. Christoff picked up the coffee can and showed it to a clerk. "Yep, that's you all right, " she said. "Wow, you're famous."

Christoff bought the can, and then headed to a lawyer's office. A legal dispute began with the coffee company. It seems sixteen years earlier, Christoff had been working as a part-time model and had posed for the picture along with several other models who tried out for the role. Company representatives told Christoff that if his picture was ever used, they'd call him back and finalize the contract. No call came, years went by, and all was forgotten. Then one day an employee pulled the photo to use in an advertisement, evidently believing that consent had been given. The picture was printed. And printed, and printed, and printed. For six years it showed up on coffee canisters sold all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, japan, South Korea, Israel and Kuwait

When the dust settled, a jury concluded that Christoff's picture had indeed helped the company sell coffee. Lots of coffee. And it had all been done without Christoff's permission. The court awarded Christoff a payment that included more than 5 percent of the profits from Taster's Choice sales for the years the photo circulated.

His award: 15.3 million dollars!

What's the moral of the story?

It pays to know who you are!