Photographer Files $150K Copyright Lawsuit Against Sony Over His Image of Stevie Wonder

A photographer has sued Sony, accusing the company of posting his “iconic” 1974 portrait of Stevie Wonder on Instagram without permission.

Longtime photographer Al Satterwhite filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Sony Music Publishing (SMP) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Sunday, seeking up to $150,000 in damages.

According to a report by Billboard, Satterwhite photographed Wonder sitting at a piano in 1974 and later registered the images with the U.S. Copyright Office. In 2023, SMP allegedly used one of the portraits in an Instagram carousel marking the 50th anniversary of Wonder’s 1973 album Innervisions.

Satterwhite’s lawsuit alleges that SMP posted his “iconic photograph” of Wonder on Instagram without first obtaining a license. He argues that the company’s use of the image cost him a licensing opportunity and potentially affected the market for his work. The complaint also claims that SMP benefited from sharing the photograph with its social media audience without paying him.

In court documents, the photographer claims the alleged infringement by SMP “has harmed, and continues to harm, the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work by robbing Plaintiff of his exclusive right to license the copyrighted work for illustrative and other purposes.”

The photographer is seeking up to $150,000 in statutory damages for copyright infringement, the maximum amount allowed under federal law for the willful infringement of a single work. Satterwhite’s argues that Sony knew, or should have known, that it needed a license to use the image, given its experience handling intellectual property rights in the music industry.

In the complaint, Satterwhite argues that SMP “is a sophisticated media company that understands copyright law and the need to obtain a license to publish the copyrighted works of others.”

According to Billboard, Satterwhite has filed more than a dozen previous lawsuits over the alleged unauthorized use of his photographs of Wonder and other well-known figures, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Brooks. Satterwhite also filed a lawsuit against Berklee College of Music last year, accusing the institution of using another photograph of Wonder from the same 1974 shoot without permission. He dropped the case voluntarily less than two months later.