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Dua Lipa sued (again) over sharing paparazzi photos

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 23 June 2022

Dua Lipa has been sued for posting paparazzi photos of herself on her Instagram profile. Photographer Robert Barbera claims that the singer shared two photographs taken by him in 2018 without first obtaining permission.

In his lawsuit, filed in California earlier this week, Barbera says that Lipa removed the photos after being made aware of the alleged infringement, but that after he served her with a draft version of his legal complaint “communication slowed and eventually stopped”.

“Plaintiff emailed defendant multiple times to give them notice that this claim was going to be filed”, the lawsuit states, according to Law360. “Plaintiff received no response and as such has been forced by the defendant to request the court’s assistance in adjudicating this matter”.

The default owner of the copyright in a photograph is usually the photographer, with any people that appear in the image having no claim under copyright law. They might be able to restrict the use of the photo through privacy law, or by enforcing image or publicity rights, but the intellectual property rights usually belong to whoever held the camera.

There have been a number of lawsuits filed in recent years by photographers who have snapped a celebrity and then seen said celeb use their photo on social media. In 2019, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande were also sued by Barbera over this issue. Both settled out of court.

Dua Lipa has also been sued over this issue before, last year being served with legal papers over an image she shared in 2019. The same lawyer who filed that case, Craig B Saunders, is representing Barbera here.