Ariana Grande looks set for a court date, with the singer being hit with a lawsuit for reposting pictures of herself without permission.
If you’re a concert photographer, then you’re likely already aware of how hard it can be to navigate the world of copyright and asking people for a credit when sharing your work.
While it’s hard enough to avoid being kicked in the face while taking shots, we’ve seen The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus come under fire for stealing an artist’s work, and we’ve seen a record label blatantly insult a photographer asking for payment for their work.
However, a New York-based photographer now has pop icon Ariana Grande in his sights, claiming the singer infringed upon copyright by sharing his photos without express permission.
As BuzzFeed News reports, Ariana Grande took to Instagram back in August to celebrate the release of her album Sweetener.
The post showed side-by-side images of Grande in casual clothing with a bag that bore the word “Sweetener”, while the image was captioned with the phrase, “happy Sweetener day”.
While it has since been deleted, the post attracted more than three million likes during its time on Instagram.
However, Robert Barbera was feeling too sweet, with the photographer filing a lawsuit against Grande and her company, Grandari, claiming that the social media post “infringed” upon his rights.
“Barbera is the author of the photographs and has at all times been the sole owner of all right, title and interest in and to the photographs, including the copyright thereto,” the lawsuit claims.
“[Grande] infringed [Barbera’s] copyright in the Photographs by reproducing and publicly displaying the Photographs on the Instagram Page.”
“[Grande] is not, and has never been, licensed or otherwise authorized to reproduce, publically display, distribute and/or use the Photographs.”
Robert Barbera is seeking USD $25,000 in damages for each photo, or a share in the profits that Ariana Grande earned from posting the photo to her millions of Instagram followers.
While Ariana Grande is yet to respond to the lawsuit, this isn’t the first time she’s been in the news lately, with her recent California concert being the target of anti-Semitic behaviour thanks to swastika-laden flyers being dropped upon waiting fans.
Check out ‘thank u, next’ by Ariana Grande:
