An official complaint of copyright infringement was issued earlier this week.
Jessica Simpson is being sued by a paparazzo for posting a picture he took on Instagram and Twitter — of herself.
The fashion designer is being sued by Splash News and Picture Agency, a Nevada-based celebrity news company. Splash has granted The Daily Mail a limited license to publish the photo in August, but Simpson never received such permission and by posting them online Simpson was breaking Splash’s copyright. The photo in question was of Simpson leaving the Bowery Hotel in New York.
Along with Simpson, a website called Reality TV World is being sued after they took the photo from Simpson’s Instagram post and put it on their site.
A complaint for copyright infringement was filed in a California federal court this week. “Simpson or someone acting on her behalf copied the Photograph and distributed it on Instagram — within hours of its original publication on August 9, 2017,” attorney Peter Perkowski wrote in the official complaint. “The copy of the Photograph that Simpson distributed on Instagram had been altered, without authorization or approval, to remove the CMI showing plaintiff as the copyright owner of the image.”
Splash argues that the photo could have brought in more revenue and that Simpson sharing it on her platforms negatively impacted its market.
“Simpson’s Instagram post and Twitter tweet made the Photograph immediately available to her nearly 11.5 million followers and others, consumers of entertainment news — and especially news and images of Simpson herself, as evidenced by their status as followers of her — who would otherwise be interested in viewing licensed versions of the Photograph in the magazines and newspapers that are plaintiff’s customers,” the complaint states.
Simpson hasn’t made a public comment on the complaint, but we’re going to guess her response is something along the likes of “yiiiiiiikes.”