Not very long ago, Jennifer Lopez’s Hustlers film had landed in a legal soup after a real-life stripper, on whom the film was apparently based on, sued the makers for defaming her image publicly. The woman had slapped them with a $40 million lawsuit. Well, fast forward to now, the pop star has embroiled her into yet another legal trouble. It all happened after the singer posted a picture of hers that belonged to a New York-based photographer Steve Sands.
JLo is reportedly facing a copyright infringement and will have to compensate the damages with $150,000. As per the court documents obtained, the photographer in question has sued both the singer and her production company Nuyorican Productions. The lawsuit alleges Jennifer Lopez of using the picture taken by Steve to ‘promote their brand’ on Instagram, wherein she has a huge 119 million followers, without taking his permission to post and paying any compensation. Reportedly, the picture was posted on June 22, 2017, and got over 656,000 likes.
The lawsuit states, "Defendants did not license the Photograph from Plaintiff for its Website, nor did Defendants have Plaintiff's permission or consent to publish the Photograph on its Website.” According to the court documents, Steve Sands is "entitled to statutory damages up to $150,000 per work infringed."
Richard Liebowitz, who filed the lawsuit, told the portal, “This is an example of celebrities using photographers’ photographs without permission to brand themselves on social media. The number of likes the photograph receives coupled with their number of social media followers is a tool to commercialize their posts."
image source: instagram/jlo