Jessica Simpson is in hot water after she posted a photo of herself on Instagram and Twitter, considering that the photo was shot by a paparazzo and she never had permission to publish it in the first place.
Splash News and Picture Agency, a Nevada-based celebrity news company, is suing the former teen sensation and Reality TV World for copyright infringement. As for the photo at hand, it's a shot of Simpson leaving the Bowery Hotel in New York City. The lawsuit is similar to the recent suit against Khloe Kardashian.
Splash reportedly granted The Daily Mail a limited license to publish the shot online in August, but they never gave permission to the pop star, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday (January 23) in California federal court. "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. "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."
As for Reality TV World, they picked up the photo that Simpson distributed online, so Splash argued in their complaint that their photo could have brought in more revenue. Unfortunately, after she posted the shot, it simply became less valuable to the 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," Perkowski continued.
Photo: Getty Images