Knobbe Martens partner Mauricio Uribe recently spoke at length with Bloomberg Law for the article, “LeBron, Hadid Photo Posts Highlight Celebrity Copyright War.” The article focuses on the trend of copyright infringement complaints brought by photographers against celebrities who share the photographer’s work on their own social media feeds.
In the article, Uribe notes that such cases represent the intersection between copyright law and right of publicity. Celebrities feel there is a “fundamental unfairness” to the lawsuits, he said, since they can have their images taken in public but are also the ones who are “ultimately going to be found liable and pay damages” for reposting those same images of themselves.
Uribe went on to explain that there is not a great deal of case law on this issue, given that most celebrities have found it more financially practical to settle before trial—which, he observes, has also made them ripe targets for such lawsuits. He noted that even asserting an “unclean hands” defense that the photographer is profiting off the celebrity’s name and likeness may not be successful given that no such affirmative defense is provided for in the copyright statutes and there is no case law directly reporting such an affirmative defense.
Until more cases go to trial and additional case law is developed, Uribe says that some celebrities are taking matters into their own hands to get around the issue—including by hiring their own photographers to take the types of photos they’ve been sued for infringing.
Read the full article on Bloomberg Law here [subscription may be required].
