Another day, another star posting copyrighted images of herself to her Instagram account. The latest perp to be caught red handed is none other than pop star Jessica Simpson, who posted a copyrighted photo to her Instagram that was licensed to the Daily Mail by Splash News but not to Simpson herself.
Splash now argues that Jessica Simpson’s posting of the image caused them irreparable damages and killed their ability to profit off of the photo. FStoppers says that it is further alleged that the photo had its copyright management information deleted.
The incident mirrors another that snagged singer Bruno Mars, who posted a picture of himself as a child that a photographer had taken of him. His story is quite interesting. As one of the youngest Elvis impersonators alive as a child, Bruno Mars was photographed by Catherine McGann.
For a “Way Back Wednesday” post to his Instagram Bruno Mars shared the old picture, prompting a suit from McGann that asserts she owns the copyright to that image. Interestingly, McGann has sued both Mars and his record label and claims neither contacted her for permission prior to his posting the image to his account.
We also reported earlier this year that Queen guitarist Brian May had become embroiled in a conflict with a photographer after posting a picture without permission. It was pretty much the same story – all on Instagram, all without permission.
In further copyright craziness, we also told you about the monkey that won the rights to its selfie – a selfie that was not only widely distributed but also extremely lucrative for the monkey in the end. The proceeds from that selfie will go on to promote conservation of his species and the preservation of his endangered habitat.
While all’s well that ends well, as we’ve reported in the past, photo stealing on Instagram is at epidemic levels. The social media giant has taken a few steps to address the issue but it remains a huge issue, even for non-professional photographers.
