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1: Hudson Valley Law News Publisher Demands $5M from California Competitor
First off today, Bill Heltzel at the Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals reports that publishers for The Legal Advocate have filed a lawsuit against the law firm behind iLegal News saying that iLegal has long been using their reporting when creating their publication.
The lawsuit alleges that iLegal has, for some time, taken the reporting in The Legal Advocate and repurposed it for their own publication without attribution. Though publisher acknowledges news and facts cannot be copyright protected, it claims that the copying goes well beyond that and includes analysis, interpretation of events and the manner the story is written, all of which they claim are protected.
The lawsuit further alleges that they published a series of fictional “seed” stories that were entirely their creation. Of the 33 stories in the complaint, some 31 were completely fictional. As such, they are demanding $150,000 for each of the 33 alleged infringements, which comes to ta total of $4,950,000.
2: Diesel Sued by L.A. Artist for Copyright Infringement
Next up today, Don-Alvin Adegeest at FashionUnited reports that Italian streetwear company Diesel is being sued by Los Angeles photographer Haleigh Nickerson over alleged copyright infringement in a recent campaign.
According to the lawsuit, Diesel recently launched a campaign in partnership with photographer Terry Richardson. Nickerson claims that one of the images from that campaign is a copyright infringement of a photograph she created entitled Sista Soulja. She specifically highlights how both images feature women of color, posing in similar clothing in front of a similar background.
The lawsuit further claims that the infringing image was used in a variety of means including billboards all over the world as well as on a wide variety of digital locations including the Diesel website and their YouTube channel. The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California.
3: Gun-Toting Couple Sues Photographer, Demands Copyright to Viral Photo
Finally today, Michael Zhang at PetaPixel reports that St. Louis lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey have filed a lawsuit against UPI photographer Bill Greenblatt alleging that the photographer was trespassing when he took the iconic photo of them and, as a result, they deserve the copyright to the images in question.
The Greenblatts rose to fame during June protests against racial injustice. As protestors marched down their private street, the duo stood on their lawn brandishing guns at the protestors. Several photographs of them were taken, including several by Greenblatt, which quickly made the couple divisive figures.
However, the story took a copyright turn when it was recently discovered that the couple printed Greenblatt’s photo on holiday cards to give out. Greenblatt himself responded by sending the couple a $1,500 bill for the usage of the photo. The couple responded by claiming that Greenblatt was trespassing when he took the photo since it was a private street and they are seeking to obtain the copyright in the image because of that lawsuit.
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