Robin Thicke is the celebrity news music trade determine to face a copyright infringement lawsuit for supposedly posting paparazzi photos of himself on Instagram with out paying to license the pictures.
Thicke is the goal of a federal lawsuit filed on Monday (June 16) by superstar photograph company BackGrid USA Inc., which claims to personal the rights to 2 paparazzi photographs that the singer and music producer posted to Instagram in 2022.
One of many photos in query reveals Thicke using shotgun in a convertible, and the opposite depicts him leaving the restaurant Catch Steak together with his now-wife, April Love Geary. These photographs are not out there on Thicke’s Instagram web page, however the lawsuit attaches screenshots of those seemingly deleted social media posts.
“Defendants violated federal legislation by willfully infringing BackGrid’s copyrights to not less than two images,” write BackGrid’s legal professionals. “By importing the Thicke images to the Instagram account, defendants encourage their followers to ‘share’ the {photograph}, thus inflicting others to additionally willfully infringe and multiplying the hurt to BackGrid.”
BackGrid claims Thicke ought to have identified higher than to put up these photographs with out correct licenses, since he’s a “subtle creator of copyrighted works” who himself owns greater than 100 copyright registrations. The photograph company additionally factors out that Thicke isn’t any stranger to mental property legislation, having confronted lengthy copyright litigation over his 2013 hit “Blurred Traces.”
The brand new lawsuit seeks a courtroom injunction blocking Thicke from infringing BackGrid’s copyrights once more, in addition to financial damages for the alleged wrongdoing. The company notes that it “made exhaustive efforts to resolve this lawsuit with defendants previous to submitting this motion.”
A rep for Thicke didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon the claims.
The lawsuit comes a month after BackGrid brought a similar case in opposition to Jennifer Lopez for allegedly posting two paparazzi photos of herself exterior a Golden Globes pre-party this previous January with out licenses.
Lopez and Thicke are removed from the primary celebrities to come across any such authorized motion over photos of themselves on their very own social media accounts. Artists together with Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa and Justin Bieber have all confronted comparable lawsuits in the previous few years.
As Billboard wrote in 2022, U.S. copyright legislation is on the facet of photographers and picture licensers. Although it might appear unfair, celebrities don’t routinely co-own photos of themselves and subsequently don’t have the appropriate to repost them without spending a dime.