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21 April 2017Patents

Photographer sues BuzzFeed over long nails, cuddling and dogs

BuzzFeed has used images of "Guinness Book of World Records" winners without authorisation, according to a photographer.

Jeffery Werner filed the copyright infringement lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, April 19.

According to the claim, Werner’s pictures were used without permission on four separate occasions.

Three of the photos—a woman with the world’s longest fingernails, the world’s biggest dog and the tallest fashion model—were taken for the "Guinness Book of World Records".

Werner also alleged that BuzzFeed had used an image of The Snuggery, a business in New York, which involved “cuddling clients”.

All four of the images were registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office between 2009 and 2012.

The photos had been previously commissioned by “The Oprah Show”, the Daily Mail and others, according to Werner.

“If authors whose business survival depends upon licensing their works find themselves in competition with their own works published by internet content pirates who simply misappropriate and publish it for commercial exploitation, the authors and their businesses cannot succeed,” said the claim.

Werner also alleged contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

He is seeking damages, profits, injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and costs.

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