Justin Bieber is reportedly being sued for sharing a paparazzi photograph of himself on Instagram. According to the court documents obtained by E! News, the photographer Robert Barbera filed a lawsuit against the singer for an image posted in March.
The picture showed Bieber and his friend Rich Wilkerson peeking out of a car while the caption read, “Me and my guy @richwilkersonjr” with no credit to the photographer. Clearly it was all good humour, until the joke turned on him.
According to the documents, Barbera claimed that Bieber should be held accountable for "unauthorized reproduction and public display" of his photography, claiming that the singer did not have his consent to post the photo on Instagram, an account with more than 120 million followers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu82LNeHeA0/
The post in question remains live on Bieber’s account and has accrued more than 3.9 million likes and thousands of comments from fans. According to The Independent, the lawsuit is similar to when Jennifer Lopez was sued for $150,000 (£116,595) for copyright infringement over a paparazzi photo.
A senior associate at EIP (intellectual property law firm in London), Carissa Kendall-Windless, states that re-posting other people's photographs on Instagram Stories can be complex.
"Instagram is different from magazine, suggested that Lopez's photo was posted on a 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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