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Gigi Hadid beats copyright lawsuit over Instagram picture
By Emily Saul, Emily Saul
Published July 18, 2019
A Brooklyn federal court judge has tossed a lawsuit filed by a paparazzi agency against supermodel Gigi Hadid for posting one of their snaps of her to Instagram.
Judge Pamela Chen ruled that Xclusive-Lee Inc.’s suit against the 23-year-old catwalker was baseless, given that it didn’t even own the copyright at the time it sued Hadid.
Chen writes that the agency had only applied for a copyright, not been formally granted registration, making the suit baseless.
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Hadid’s attorneys — who likened the lawsuit to extortion — lauded the judge’s decision.
“We are pleased that the Court granted our motion to dismiss this meritless case,” attorney John Quinn said in a statement. “The Court’s decision recognized this case for what it was — an effort to extract a settlement from Ms. Hadid with little regard for the basic requirements of copyright law.”
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Hadid herself blasted the lawsuit when it was first filed in a heated Instagram post.
“The photo is by a Paparazzi & is of me on the street outside an event last week. These people make money off us everyday, LEGALLY stalking us day in and day out,” she wrote in a post. “For someone to take a situation where I was trying to be open, and sue me for a photo I FOUND ON TWITTER (with no photographers name on the image), for a photo he has already been paid for by whatever outlet put it online (!!!), is absurd.”
This article originally appeared in Page Six.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/gigi-hadid-beats-copyright-lawsuit-over-instagram-picture