Vampire Weekend have settled out of court with the cover model of their second album Contra. The model, Ann Kirsten Kennis, sued the band, their label XL Recordings and the photographer Tod Brody for $2 million, claiming that she had not authorised the use of her image which was from a polaroid taken of her in 1983.
She claimed that her mother had taken the polaroid of her, while Brody claimed that he had legitimately taken the picture of her and held copyright over it. Meanwhile, Vampire Weekend and their label XL were gagged due to the legal proceedings and were unable to comment on it.
Photo News reported on the weekend that Kennis has now asked a federal court in Los Angeles to dismiss the case she filed against the band and their label after reaching an out of court settlement for which the terms are confidential.
After she filed her lawsuit, Vampire Weekend and XL Recordings filed a counter claim against Brody, alleging that they were not responsible for any claims again them in the case, saying that they had paid $5,000 to license the image in good faith to use on the album cover and in tour promotional material.
The counter claim is still in the courts with Brody now representing himself after his lawyers withdrew from representing him saying that he was unco-operative and wasn’t ponying up the cash to pay them.
