Snoop Dogg is being accused of copyright infringement in a lawsuit over a viral video he posted on Instagram earlier this year.
via Complex:
FreedomNews.TV claims Snoop swiped an “exact copy” of their original video in which a man falls to the ground while trying to climb the facade of the JPMorgan Chase Bank headquarters in New York City. The April incident was part of an organized effort from a group of demonstrators who are described in the New York Post as being anti-capitalist.
The suit also accuses Snoop of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act since he shared the alleged copyrighted footage without crediting FreedomNews.TV. “Defendant intentionally removed copyright management information related to the video,” the media outlet wrote. “Defendant purposefully failed to include the video credit originally conveyed with the video in order to mislead the public into believing that defendant either owned the video or had legitimately licensed it.”
A lawsuit was filed by Integral Images against Dua Lipa earlier this year over a 2019 Instagram post where she shared a paparazzi photo of herself at the airport. The picture in question showed the singer waiting in line at the airport with her ticket and passport in hand while wearing an oversized hat, and was captioned, “I’ll be living under big fluffy hats until further notice.”
The company sought $150,000 in damages and wanted their lawyer fees covered, arguing she used the photo of herself without permission, and profited from the post since she uses Instagram as a monetizing tool.
We’ve said it time and time again — copyright legislation needs to be drastically overhauled to represent where we are with technology.
