Crazy Copyright Suit Over Gigi Hadid Posting A Photo Of Herself To Instagram Shows Absurdity Inherent In Photo Copyrights

One of the things about copyright that copyright supporters really hate to discuss is just how problematic the whole idea of getting copyrights on photographs can be. They basically have to twist themselves into all sorts of logical knots just to justify it in the first place. You can't get a copyright on factual information and -- some might argue -- what is a photograph but a capturing of factual information. That photograph is a factual representation of what the lens captured. To date, the way that courts have dealt with this fundamental problem is either (a) to ignore it, or (b) to construct flimsy logical houses of cards arguing that the copyright actually applies to things like the "framing" and (in some cases) lighting choices or decisions positioning of the objects in a photograph of the photographer (if those things were, indeed, done by the photographer). And you can kind of understand the thinking on that when the photographer really does "design" whatever is being photographed. But it gets more questionable when you're talking about "nature" photographs or just general snapshots walking around.

Some of this oddity is coming out in a somewhat weird, somewhat amusing case that the Fashion Law Blog has been following over the last few months. Reading through the filings in the case (some of which are embedded below) leads to a bunch of fairly absurd arguments (on both sides), many of which come out of the fundamental troubles with allowing copyright on snapshot photos in the first place. This case involves model Gigi Hadid, who is frequently photographed by the paparazzi. One day last fall, she was approached by a photographer and played along, "posing" for the photographer. The next day she found the photo online, cropped about 50% of the photo (so it was even more focused on her) and posted it to her Instagram feed. In January, an organization called Xclusive-Lee sued her for infringement.

There have been all sorts of procedural problems with the lawsuit, and I am expecting it to be tossed on those alone, without touching on most of the other issues that are popping up in the case, so let's start there. First off, as we discussed back in March, the Supreme Court has said that you can't sue until you have a copyright registration (and not just a mere application for that registration). In this case, the copyright in question has only been applied for, not issued. Xclusive-Lee's lawyers insist that because they filed the case before the Supreme Court ruled on that issue it's all fine and dandy, but that's not how the law works. Separately, the complaint doesn't establish that Xclusive-Lee actually holds the copyright on the image (it's not even clear who Xclusive-Lee is). Hadid's filings note that "Xclusive-Lee" did not take the photograph, and that's not even the name on the copyright registration form. And Xclusive-Lee has not provided any proof (such as a copyright assignment) to show that it holds the actual copyright here. That seems kind of like a big deal. Xclusive-Lee's lawyers insist that they don't need to show such evidence up front and can do it later, which seems like a weird response. Why not just show the copyright assignment upfront?

Separately, the judge has repeatedly had to scold the lawyers for Xclusive-Lee for not following the rules, which can't bode well:

I may not be a lawyer, but I would expect that judges don't very much like it when lawyers repeatedly fail to follow basic instructions.

For what it's worth, one of the lawyers for Xclusive-Lee is David Deal who has also been associated with Pixsy in the past. Pixsy is one of those scrape the internet and threaten to sue trolling operations out there.

So given all the procedural shenanigans described above, it would not surprise me at all if the case just gets tossed on those grounds. It seems like that would be the easiest (and most likely correct) way the court would go in this situation.

However, in Hadid's motion to dismiss, Hadid's lawyers also raise a fair use argument that is, shall we say, a little "out there." To be clear, I do think that there are credible fair use arguments for Hadid's usage here, but I'm not sure that Hadid's lawyers m