Can you be sued for posting a photo of yourself on Instagram?
If you’re Khloe Kardashian, you sure can, which is exactly what the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star is dealing with after sharing a pic of herself that was licensed to a photo agency without permission to do so. The result: she’s being sued by that agency for copyright infringement.
While Kardashian may own the copyright to her own license, that’s not the case when it comes to photos taken of her, notes The Hollywood Reporter.
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According to THR, U.K.-based Xposure Photos exclusively licensed a photo of Kardashian and one of her sisters dining at a Miami restaurant to the Daily Mail.
“Plaintiff never licensed the Photograph to defendants,” states the complaint, referring to Kardashian along with 10 unidentified defendants (possibly members of her social media team).
“Nevertheless, defendants have used, and continue to use, the Photograph without authorization or permission from plaintiff to do so,” adds the suit. “Specifically, Kardashian copied the Photograph and distributed it on Instagram on September 14, 2016. The copy of the Photograph that Kardashian distributed on Instagram had been altered to remove the CMI [copyright management information] showing plaintiff as the copyright owner of the image.”
In a statement, reports Us Weekly, the photo agency lays out its case. ‘”Kardashian’s Instagram post made the photograph immediately available to her nearly 67 million followers and others, consumers of entertainment news — and especially news and images of Kardashian herself, as evidenced by their status as followers of Kardashian —who would otherwise be interested in viewing licensed versions of the photograph in the magazines and newspapers that are plaintiff’s customers,” reads the statement.
As THR reports, Xposure’s suit is seeking “an injunction, profits arising from the act of alleged infringement, statutory damages up to $25,000 and more.”
