Jennifer Lopez Faces Two Lawsuits for Posting Images of Herself Without Permission
Jennifer Lopez is facing two federal lawsuits from a photographer and a photo agency after allegedly posting images of herself on social media without permission.
In a lawsuit filed on May 17, photographer Edwin Blanco accused Lopez of sharing his copyrighted photographs from a pre-Golden Globes party without his consent. In a twin filing, photo agency Backgrid USA also sued Lopez over the same pictures, which it co-owns with Blanco.
The images showed the singer and actress in a white dress and a white faux fur coat outside the party at Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles. Lopez shared the images on her accounts on Instagram and X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) with the caption “GG Weekend Glamour” on January 5. Blanco and Backgrid allege that Lopez posted the image without contacting them or seeking a license.
The lawsuits allege that Jennifer Lopez’s social media posts featuring the photos triggered a wave of reposts online. These included fan pages and fashion brands — such as Adrienne Landau, the designer of the faux fur coat Lopez wore in the photos — who shared the images on her official Instagram account. This rapid spread of Blanco’s photos has been described as a clear case of widespread copyright infringement.
Attorneys for photographers Blanco and the photo agency Backgrid argue that the images were used “to promote Ms. Lopez’s public appearances, boost user engagement, increase shareability, and lend credibility to her branded content.”
They described Landau’s post as “particularly egregious,” claiming it “directly leveraged (the) photographs to market the brand’s products… generating promotional value for both the designer and Ms. Lopez, all without permission or compensation.”
According to the lawsuits, a representative for Backgrid and Blanco reached out to Lopez’s team the following week regarding the alleged copyright infringement. Perkowski says the parties had “fruitful discussions” and came to an oral agreement on a monetary settlement — but Lopez never signed a written agreement and has yet to pay the promised amount.
Backgrid and Blanco are now seeking up to $150,000 in damages each per photograph that Lopez shared. The lawsuits also note that Lopez was previously sued in 2019 for posting an unauthorized paparazzi image of herself and her then-boyfriend Alex Rodriguez to her Instagram account.
U.S. copyright law is quite straightforward when it comes to intellectual property and clearly states that the person who “authored” a work is the copyright owner, such as a photographer who takes a picture of a celebrity. But despite this crystal-clear definition of intellectual property in the eyes of the law, some celebrities still refuse to license images for their social media and adamantly believe they should own the photos taken of them, not the photographers.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
