Neil Zloswera veteran rock photographer who took pictures of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen is suing Warner Records over a Facebook post featuring a photo of Tom Petty – the latest of more than 50 lawsuits filed by the Photo. the past decade.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Zlozower accuses Warner of copyright infringement in his photo, which depicts Petty in the 70s sitting in front of a record player. His lawyers claim the image was posted in 2020 on the official Facebook page for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, which Warner allegedly controls.
“The defendant has not implemented adequate internal policies to verify copyright ownership before using content, indicating a gross negligence of legal compliance, which is necessary for a company of the defendant's scope, capabilities and level of sophistication.” “, Zlozower's lawyer Craig Saunders writes in the July 23 complaint.
Warner's alleged failure to use such copyright protections suggests “de facto willful infringement” by the company, the lawsuit alleges — a key charge, since under US copyright law “willful” infringements can lead to enhanced damages up to $150,000 per project.
A spokesperson for Warner did not return a request for comment on the lawsuit's allegations.
The case is hardly the first for Zlozower, who has also photographed Prince, Van Halen and countless other bands and artists over a decades-long career. Since 2016, court records show he has filed 57 copyright lawsuits against a wide range of defendants in federal courts across the country seeking monetary damages for the alleged unauthorized use of his photos.
Many of his cases have targeted media companies, including CBS, Buzzfeed and Vice. But he has also sued Universal Music Group twice, once over an image of Elvis Costello and another over a photo of Guns N' Roses. A different case targeted Ticketmaster, accusing the Live Nation unit of using an image of Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde. In 2019, Zlozower sued guitar manufacturer Gibson over allegations that the company used a shot of Eddie Van Halen without permission.
Copyright lawsuits for the unauthorized use of photos on the Internet are extremely common, with hundreds filed in federal court each year. Photographers and the lawyers who bring them say it's their only real recourse against rampant online theft of their intellectual property, often by sophisticated companies that should know better.
“Photographers who are serious about protecting their copyright have no choice but to file a lawsuit [court] when an offender refuses to negotiate,” he says David C. Deal, a lawyer who represents photographers in such cases. “Photographers are the overwhelming losers in the digital age because they are properly compensated at a fraction of the rate at which their intellectual property is copied and used by others.”
However, critics have questioned the tactics of some photographers and their lawyers, suggesting that they use the trial itself as a business model — that is, leveraging the threat of massive damages and prohibitive costs to win as many small “nuisance” settlements as possible.
In 2019, a federal judge issued a scathing criticism David Oppenheimer, a North Carolina photographer who filed more than 170 such lawsuits. As detailed by The Assemblyjudge Martin Reindinger he cited Oppenheimer's large claims and caseload before saying he “seems to be using copyright laws as a source of revenue, rather than redress for a legitimate injury.”
A year earlier, a New York federal judge used harsher language Richard Leibovitz, a Long Island attorney who has filed thousands of such photo infringement cases. Judge Denise Cote called the lawyer a 'copyright troll' — whom he defined as someone who aims to win “quick” settlements that are “low enough in price” that it makes financial sense to “pay the troll rather than defend the claim.”
“As evidenced by the staggering volume of filings combined with an astonishing rate of voluntary dismissals and speedy settlements in Mr. Liebowitz's cases in this district, it is undisputed that Mr. Liebowitz is a copyright troll,” the judge wrote in her decision for 2018.
In November 2021, Liebowitz was has been suspended from practicing law in New York for a pattern of misconduct, including “conduct that makes a mockery of due process of law.” Earlier this year, it was abolished by the state for failure to comply with court orders and making false statements.
According to federal court records, Liebowitz represented Zlozower in the vast majority of his copyright cases through 2021. In 2018, his firm filed nine lawsuits on behalf of the photographer, including one against Spotify above an image of Mötley Crüe on the band's artist page. In 2019 alone, Liebowitz's company filed 14 more lawsuits against Zlozower, including one against famed indie record label Amoeba Music.
According to Deal, many photographers face an “impossible position” in today's Internet: Allow for-profit businesses to exploit their work for free or “insist on proper compensation” and risk being labeled a “troll” when they take court action. But even within this context of mass infringement, Deal says, Zlozower's litigation volume seems unusually high.
“The idea of a photographer filing an average of 5-6 lawsuits a year seems excessive to me,” says Deal, saying his own firm will only sue in a “very small percentage of cases” after exhausting all other options.
One of Zlozower's first cases was filed against Mötley Crüe itself. Represented by Liebowitz, he accused the band in September 2016 of creating T-shirts and other concert merchandise for the 2014 “Final tour” that were emblazoned with photos he had taken. Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and other members during the Crüe's 1980s heyday. But unlike many such accusers, the band fought back.
During two years of litigation, Mötley Crüe's lawyers argued that the band had has already been paid decades earlier for the right to use these images and that he “has continued to use them without objection ever since.” Crüe also filed its own counterclaim, accusing Zlozower of infringing their trademarks and likenesses by using the band's name and images to sell books and publications: “Zlozower never asked for, nor received, consent to sell photographs depicting the likenesses of the Mötley Crüe band members.”
But in 2020, the case against Crüe ended like many of Zlozower's: in a confidential settlement and voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit, without a final decision on the merits. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in court filings.
Zloswer and his current attorney, Sanders, did not return requests for comment. Advertising sign.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/rock-photographer-filed-over-50-copyright-lawsuits-warner-tom-petty/
