We all post pictures of ourselves and there is really nothing to it.
Unless that picture is a copyrighted picture.
This was the case of Gigi Hadid on October 11, 2018, when she posted a picture of herself copyrighted by a New York company Xclusive-Lee, Inc. without their consent.
Three and a half months later, Xclusive-Lee has slammed her with a copyright infringement lawsuit for “statutory damages, any profits realized from the publication of the image, attorneys’ fees and costs”, Forbes reports.
Their complaint which was filed in Federal court, Brooklyn, states that she “copied and uploaded” their picture “without license or permission from X-clusive,” which they deem a violation of their intellectual property rights.
Although she deleted it from her Instagram, it had already got over 1.6 million likes. The company alleges that the posting was “willful and intentional.”
They also allege that she faced a “nearly identical to the facts alleged in the present case” in 2017 with photographer Peter Cepeda but this was settled out of court.
The suit also mentions that she has posted at least 50 “uncredited photographs” on her Instagram account.
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