Recently Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters were hit with a lawsuit for using a celebrity photographer’s photo of the late Tupac Shakur.
According to Consumerist, Danny Clinch recently filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in a New York federal court.
Clinch claims the two retailers used a photo that he took of Tupac, which appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine in 1993 and then again on the cover in 1996. Clinch reportedly copyrighted the photo in 2002, giving him the right to say when the photo could be used.
In the lawsuit, both Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters are named, along with T-shirt makers, Bioworld Merchandising and Planet Productions, and Amaru/AWA Merchandising, the company in charge of licensing Tupac merchandise.
The lawsuit reads, “Defendants, without the authorization, knowledge or consent of the plaintiff, deliberately and willfully copied, displayed, distributed, and sold the copyrighted photographs on such infringing T-shirts and perhaps other apparel.”
The lawsuit claims that Amaru entered a license agreement with Planet Productions in 2012, which allowed Planet Productions to use photos of Tupac, including the one taken by Clinch.
The agreement reportedly claims that Amaru had been granted a license to use the photos by each individual photo copyright holder, but Clinch reportedly claims that did not happen.
Now Clinch is seeking $600,000 in damages, the destruction of the remaining t-shirts, and an order preventing companies from using this copyrighted image.
Check out the lawsuit here.
Source: https://consumerist.com/2017/06/02/photographer-sues-forever-21-urban-outfitters-over-tupac-t-shirt/
