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Legal
Judge allows LaChapelle’s Rihanna lawsuit to proceed
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 25 July 2011
Well, this could be interesting. Mainly for intellectual property lawyers, but hey, there’s some raunchy photos involved too for the rest of you. David LaChapelle’s lawsuit against Rihanna and her people over the video to her ‘S&M’ song has been green lighted by a US judge.
As previously reported, famous photographer LaChapelle says Rihanna’s ‘S&M’ pop promo ripped off a photo shoot he did for Vogue back in 2002. It seems undeniable that the video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was a homage to LaChapelle’s photos, but the question is whether it infringed any of his rights.
A New York judge last week threw out LaChapelle’s claims of trade-dress infringement, unfair competition and unjust enrichment, but said there was a strong enough case for copyright infringement for that part of his lawsuit to proceed to court.
The photographer’s legal people are now due to meet with reps of Rihanna and her label next month, after which we’ll presumably know whether this interesting squabble will actually go to court.
