Jennifer Lopez facing lawsuit over Instagram fiancé post
Entertainment company Splash News is suing singer Jennifer Lopez for $150,000 for posting a photo on Instagram.
On Saturday, October 5, Splash News filed its copyright infringement suit at the US District Court for the Central District of California, accusing Lopez of posting a photo that the company hadn’t licensed to her.
The image at issue, which depicts Lopez holding hands with her then-boyfriend and now-fiancé Alex Rodriguez while out for breakfast in New York City, was taken in 2017.
“Plaintiff never licensed the photograph to defendant. Nevertheless, Lopez used it without authorisation or permission from plaintiff to do so,” alleged the suit.
According to Splash News, Lopez posted the photo on Instagram in November 2017 and, the following month, the entertainment company notified the singer of her infringement.
Lopez’s use of the image “harms the existing and future market for the original photograph”, alleged Splash News.
The entertainment company is requesting that the court stop Lopez from further copying and displaying the image, an account of profits and an impoundment of all copies of the photograph.
Lopez is the latest celebrity taken to court over Instagram posts.
Last month, WIPR reported that model Gigi Hadid was facing another copyright infringement lawsuit as a result of her activity on Instagram. The photograph at the heart of this suit is of Zayn Malik, former member of pop band One Direction.
Brands are also facing similar suits. In August, a New York City-based photographer took fashion house Alexander Wang to court for using a photograph he took of UK singer Dua Lipa without compensation.
Carissa Kendall-Windless, senior associate at EIP, said: “Photographs of celebrities can be lucrative. In instances where the photograph is used in physical print, in a glossy magazine deal, for instance, one would expect higher fees.”
However, Instagram is slightly different, explained Kendall-Windless.
“Since the photo was posted on an Instagram story, which only lasts 24 hours, it becomes harder to calculate how much ‘damage’ the plaintiff is entitled to. Arguably, the author would still have been able to sell the photograph to publishing houses in full resolution and with a degree of permanency.”
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