Jennifer Lopez is being sued for copyright infringement over a photo she posted to her Instagram Story in 2017.
The lawsuit, filed by Splash News and Picture Agency, is in regards to a photo of Lopez and Alex Rodriguez holding hands on a sidewalk in New York City, according to court documents obtained by E! News.
“Plaintiff never licensed the Photograph to defendant. Nevertheless, Lopez used it without authorization or permission from plaintiff to do so,” the suit states. “Specifically, Lopez or someone acting on her behalf copied the Photograph and distributed it on Instagram, via the @jlo account, on a story posted November 7, 2017.”
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“The Photograph is creative, distinctive, and valuable,” according to the court docs. “Because of the subject’s celebrity status, and the Photograph’s quality and visual appeal, plaintiff (and the photographer it represents) stood to gain revenue from licensing the Photograph.”
“But defendant’s unauthorized use harms the existing and future market for the original Photograph,” the docs continue. “The Instagram post made the Photograph immediately available to Lopez’s tens of millions followers and others, consumers of entertainment news — and especially news and images of Lopez herself, as evidenced by their status as followers of her — who would otherwise be interested in viewing licensed versions of the Photograph in the magazines and newspapers that are plaintiff’s customers.”
According to E!News, the company is seeking $150,000 and an injunction against Lopez and her team which would stop them from posting the photo again.
Lopez has not commented on the copyright infringement suit as of this writing.
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Lopez is not the only celebrity to be sued over copyright infringement claims.
Model Gigi Hadid has been sued three times over copyright infringement, with the latest in September over a photo she posted of ex-boyfriend Zayn Malik.
Photographer Robert O’Neil filed a lawsuit against Hadid claiming that the model “infringed” O’Neil’s copyright by “reproducing and publicly displaying” the photo of Malik on her Instagram Story.
“This action arises out of Defendant’s unauthorized reproduction and public display of a copyrighted photograph of English singer and songwriter Zayn Malik, owned and registered by O’Neil, a New York based professional photographer,” the court docs obtained by E! News. read.
“Gigi Hadid is not, and has never been, licensed or otherwise authorized to reproduce, publicly display, distribute and/or use the Photograph,” the docs stated.
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Hadid has not commented on the new lawsuit but in 2018 she reacted to being sued by a paparazzi for posting a photo of herself.
“Yesterday I heard from my management that I am being ‘legally pursued’ for my last (now deleted) Instagram post,” Hadid wrote. “The photo is by a Paparazzi & is of me on the street outside an event last week.”
She continued: “I posed/smiled for the photo because I understand that this is part of my job, this was an appropriate situation for ‘the press’ to attend, and also that this is how paparazzi make a living. Most circumstances are not this way, i.e. leaving my apartment, or anytime I feel that my privacy is being unreasonably intruded upon, doing everyday things feel harder to face.”
Hadid said that paparazzi “make money off us everyday, LEGALLY stalking us day in and day out -for nothing special- for us to walk six feet to a car and six feet into a work building.”
“They drive dangerously close and extremely recklessly; they put the general public in danger in pursuit of a photo (I and many people I know have gotten in car accidents in cabs/car-services because of paparazzi) and it seems that they can never get enough.”
Hadid claims she found the photo on Twitter “with no photographers name on the image.”
“To the paparazzi, I understand that this is how you make your living, and I respect that this is something I must accept with my job,” Hadid wrote. “But there is a line. We are human beings, and sometimes it takes a lot of courage to engage with you because of the resentment I feel for the negative parts of these experiences.”