I have been requested to take photos of a performance in Newcastle area last month by the event organiser. I took 5000 photos of various dancers and dancing groups, all over 18, and whittled it down to about 500 photos. These I put up on Smugmug for sale, as worked out with the event organiser. The performances were on a private stage in an RSL club and there was an entry fee to view the performances.

The event organiser has since notified me that some of the performers have complained about the public nature of the sale, ie: I did not put a password on the gallery and it was open on the internet so all performers and guests performers and audience, and anyone else, could see a reasonable sized thumbnail of the photo that was for sale and purchase those photos up to original size.

I have now password protected the gallery and asked that those offended please let me know which photos they want removed so I can open the gallery up again in the future.

My question is, what are my rights as far as ownership of the photos and making some of these photos public as part of my portfolio. Do I have to delete or hide the photos from the public on request?
Don't get me wrong, I do not want to do anything to upset people, and I will delete photos if requested, but if in future someone gets back to me and says that they never received the request for deletion of photos from the gallery and they want to sue me for the photos that have since been made public...

Thanks for your wisdom...

- - - Updated - - -

P.S. Unless you are of an extreme religious sect, none of the photos are in any way explicit. Certainly not by any Australian standard that I know of. No nudity exceeding bellies and some thighs were exposed. No lewd poses either.