We haven’t had one of these in a while but here we are, back with a copyright infringement case involving a celebrity.
This time it’s legendary rapper Nas who shared a photo back in 2020 on Instagram featuring himself and deceased legend Tupac by photographer Al Pereira. Pereira’s original photo was taken in July 1993 and republished in 2017 at which point he filed for copyright according to both PetaPixel and Radar Online.
Pereira licenses his photos and the failure to do so by Nas resulted in diminished value for this particular image according to the lawsuit. But what makes this an interesting story is not the subject matter involved, as we have told some variant of this yarn many times before, rather who decided to weigh in on the matter and that was none other than fellow rapper and media icon Snoop Dogg. And let’s just say he had more than a few things to say.
You can check out the original Instagram post here.
Essentially, Snoop Dogg wants to understand how someone can be sued for posting a photograph featuring themselves and how someone can have rights in this regard. To be fair, it is an interesting debate and the superstar’s calls to reevaluate some of these laws in the age of social media is probably a great idea. After all, many photographers aren’t aware of their own rights and it’s fair to say that many people in the general public don’t understand them either. Dialogue is probably a good thing.
As always, we’d love to know your opinion on copyright law and its protection as well as any suggestions you might have to improve it or change it. Let us know in the comments below.
Check out some other photography news on Light Stalking at this link right here.
