Comedian and actor Amy Schumer posted fake paparazzi pictures of herself on Instagram in which she was pushing her son Gene in a stroller while wearing a sweater that she sold in her online store.
Schumer put out an Instagram post directly advertising that her sweater that read “Plus Size Brain” was available for sale on her online store.
“If you want your own #plussizebrain sweatshirt go to amyschumer.com store! Soooo comfy,” read the post by Schumer, originally posted back in November.
But the paparazzi photographer, Felipe Ramales, wasn’t particularly thrilled by the fact that his photo was being used without his consent – even though the photograph appears to have been taken of Schumer without her consent.
Ramales has now filed a copyright infringement suit against Schumer in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday. (Read the lawsuit below)
Ramales shockingly demanded the comedian cover his legal expenses and pay 150k for each unlicensed photo she posted.
In his copyright infringement suit, Ramales described that he took that picture of Schumer right outside her New York City home and that he also owned copyrights to that picture.
“As a direct and proximate cause of the infringement by the Defendants of Plaintiff’s copyright and exclusive rights under copyright, Plaintiff is entitled to damages and Defendants pursuant… for the infringement”, read the lawsuit.
“Alternatively, Plaintiff is entitled to statutory damages up to $150,000 per work infringed for Defendants willful infringements of the Photographs.”
Ramales seems to be pretty acquainted with legal battles such as this, as he had previously sued Victoria Beckham for using a photo he took to promote her business on Instagram.
Here’s what Ramales’ lawyer Richard Leibowitz said:
“One can not use photographs without the photographer’s permission, even for social media websites. In the digital ‘right click, save as’ era, photographers are seeing their licensing revenue diminish and the number of thefts of their work increase dramatically. This is a major problem.”
Read the complaint.
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