Published 18:17 IST, December 20th 2019
Liam Hemsworth and Rebel Wilson sued by paparazzi for posting their own pictures
The co-stars of Isn't It Romantic, Liam Hemsworth and Rebel Wilson, were recently sued by paparazzi after they posted their own pictures on social media.
- Entertainment News
- 3 min read
Actors Liam Hemsworth and Rebel Wilson were recently sued by Splash News for posting their own pictures on social media. The Isn't It Romantic star was sued for using a picture of the paparazzi outlet that was licensed to the Daily Mail. According to Splash News' claim at the California federal court, Liam Hemsworth infringed the image rights of the paparazzi by posting a behind-the-scenes photo from the film's (Isn't It Romantic) set on his Instagram page.
Liam Hemsworth and Rebel Wilson get sued for posting their own pictures online
The image that Liam was sued for was posted by the actor in July 2018 and in June 2019. The first time Hemsworth posted the picture was to promote the film itself. The second time, Liam once again used the picture, this time to ask his fans to vote for his movie in the Teen Choice awards. Liam Hemsworth did not take the consent of the paparazzi outlet, Splash News, before doing so and even removed the watermark that they had imprinted upon the picture.
In the complaint to the court, Lawyer for Splash News, Peter Perkowski, explained the reason behind suing Liam Hemsworth. The lawyer stated that legitimate publications to which Splash looks to pay syndication fees are unwilling to pay for images that have been widely viewed on the Internet due to being shared freely by pirate sites and well-known celebrities. The Lawyer further argued that Liam's large fan following would have been interested to see the BTS picture and would have even paid for it if it was exclusively available only at certain publications. However, after Liam posted the image on his official Instagram page, it became worthless to his client, as no publication would buy it due to its lack of exclusivity.
Splash News touted the infringement to be willful and have hence demanded Liam Hemsworth to pay $150,000 as damages for each use. Furthermore, the paparazzi have also demanded that Liam pay another $25,000 for removing their watermark from their image before posting on his Instagram. On the same day, Peter Perkowski also lodged a complaint against Rebel Wilson, this time on the behalf of Xposure Photo Agency.
Rebel, similar to Hemsworth, posted a copyrighted BTS image from the set of her film, The Hustle. She did so in April 2018, and like Liam, she too removed the watermark from the image. Rebel Wilson was also sued for willful infringement and watermark removal, as the Xposure Photo Agency stated that the BTS picture was highly valuable, but was now worth nothing to them after the actor's large following saw it online.
Updated 19:16 IST, December 20th 2019