We never downplay copyright infringement on this blog, but we do call out incidents that seem to toe the line at best. In a lawsuit that seems to be designed for the common social media era, and done frequently, J-Lo is being sued for posting or reposting a paparazzi image of her that was posted online. How this works is a paparazzi photographer takes a ton of photos of a celebrity at an event, or anywhere, and then posts them online. While also copyrighting every image. Then when someone high enough up the food chain reposts the image, they claim it is being used for PR, and thus commercial purposes, and they sue for damages. In this case it is not clear if it is a repost or posting to a Story or a copy and paste job (the copy & paste is more legit infringement compared to the others, IMO). Anyway, given that the almost every social media site is designed for reposts or posting someone’s post to a Story, when used for commercial purposes, or deemed to be so, people can easily get in trouble not intending to infringe. We have blogged about companies clearly violating copyright laws, but in this type of case it is not their intention. But, J-Lo has money and will settle this lawsuit for a good chunk of money because it is small change for her, which is what the paparazzi and their lawyers bank on, literally.
PS Gen AI image “Create an image of a news paper that features a headline with photo about J-lo falling for a scam” brought to you by “filler words” and “ehhhh, I don’t know if that is enough forehead wrinkles”.
