A paparazzo and photo agency have dropped lawsuits alleging Jennifer Lopez infringed their copyrights by posting pictures of herself outside a Golden Globes pre-party to Instagram and X without paying to license the images.
Federal court notices from Saturday (June 28) say photographer Edwin Blanco and agency BackGrid USA are voluntarily dismissing the pair of lawsuits they brought against Lopez last month. These types of dismissals are often the result of settlements, though it’s not clear whether the pop singer and actress paid to get the cases dropped.
The lawsuits centered on two images of Lopez standing outside the Amazon MGM Studios x Vanity Fair Party at Los Angeles’ swanky Bar Marmont the night before the Golden Globe Awards in January.
A lawyer for Blanco and BackGrid, who own the photos, claimed Lopez posted them to both her Instagram and X pages on Jan. 5 without permission. This supposedly set off a spate of reposts from fan pages and fashion brands, including the designer of a faux fur coat Lopez was wearing in the pictures.
Blanco and BackGrid’s attorney said he contacted Lopez’s team about the alleged copyright infringement soon after these posts went up. They had “fruitful discussions” about a monetary settlement, the lawyer claimed, but failed to reach a deal before the lawsuit was filed.
The legal complaint accused Lopez of willful infringement under the federal Copyright Act, carrying possible damages of up to $150,000 per photo.
The lawyer for Blanco and BackGrid and reps for Lopez did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday (June 30).
It’s quite common for celebrities to be sued for posting paparazzi photos of themselves on social media. Major artists, including Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, have settled similar lawsuits in the last few years, and Robin Thicke was sued for the same thing earlier this month.
As Billboard wrote in 2022, U.S. copyright law is on the side of photographers and image licensers. Though it may seem odd, celebrities do not automatically co-own images of themselves and therefore don’t have the right to repost them for free.
