An old Instagram post is catching up with Jennifer Lopez, and it might turn out to be pretty costly.
Splash News has filed a lawsuit against the Hustlers star, alleging that she posted a paparazzi photo of her and Alex Rodriguez back in 2017, and claiming copyright infringement.
“Plaintiff never licensed the Photograph to defendant. Nevertheless, Lopez used it without authorization or permission from plaintiff to do so,” reads a court document obtained by E! News. “Specifically, Lopez or someone acting on her behalf copied the Photograph and distributed it on Instagram, via the @jlo account, on a story posted November 7, 2017.”
The company is suing for $150,000 in damages along with an injunction to prevent Lopez from posting the photo to any of her social media in the future, calling the photograph in question “creative, distinctive, and valuable.”
“The Instagram post made the Photograph immediately available to Lopez’s tens of millions of followers and others, consumers of entertainment news — and especially news and images of Lopez herself, as evidenced by their status as followers of her — who would otherwise be interested in viewing licensed versions of the Photograph in the magazines and newspapers that are plaintiff’s customers,” the complaint claimed.
Two previous high-profile copyright claims against celebrities for posting paparazzi photos to their social media accounts ultimately went nowhere.
Xposure Photos dropped a lawsuit it brought against Khloé Kardashian back in 2017, and a court dismissed a similar claim against Gigi Hadid by Xclusive-Lee in July of this year. In the case of the latter, the lawsuit was dismissed because the company hadn’t obtained copyright registration for the photo prior to filing the claim against Hadid.
Unlike Hadid, who used the lawsuit against her as an opportunity to blast the paparazzi for constantly creating dangerous situations while stalking celebrities in their day-to-day life, Lopez has yet to comment publicly on the lawsuit.
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