libel

Photo Caption Leads to Libel Lawsuit Threat from Guns N’ Roses Singer

Back in 1992, Los Angeles-based photographer Laura London lived down the street from the singer of the rock band. The singer's name was Axl Rose. The band was Gunz N' Roses.

Flash forward twenty years, and London is currently holding a photo exhibition for her project, "Once Upon a Time ... Axl Rose Was My Neighbor," at Coagula Curatorial in LA. The show features photographs from the time London spent living a stone's throw away from a man who is now considered one of the greatest hard rock singers of all time, along with portraits of Rose wannabes and band photo recreations. One particular image in the show attracted the attention of Rose, and not in a good way -- it led to a lawsuit threat.

Photographer Threatened with Lawsuit After Protecting His Copyright

After discovering that multiple websites had used one of his photos without permission, photographer Jay Lee began sending out DMCA takedown notifications to web hosts in an attempt to protect his copyright. One of the websites was owned by a woman named Candice Schwager, who had 14 of her sites temporarily taken offline as a result of the takedown request. Turns out Schwager is involved in both helping represent special needs children and helping a man named Louis Guthrie get elected as County Sheriff. This is where the story gets weird.