Ozzy Osbourne has been sued for posting photos to social media of, well, Ozzy Osbourne. Photographer Neil Zlozower says that Osbourne posted several of his photos of the musician without permission, in doing so infringing his copyrights.
The photos were shared with millions of fans on Facebook, Instagram and X. Those social media accounts, Zlozower claims - according to Billboard - are “key components” of Osbourne’s “popular and lucrative commercial enterprise”, with the audiences he connects with on those platforms “monetised” so that they “provide significant financial benefits to the defendant”.
The photographer explains that he reached out to Osbourne’s people three times last year - in June, August and September - to discuss the unlicensed use of his pictures, but the musician “failed to respond”. As a result, he says, he has been “forced to seek judicial intervention for defendant’s infringing activity”.
The default owner of the copyright in a photograph is usually the photographer. Which means, unless there’s an agreement that says otherwise, the people who appear in the photo do not own the copyright and can’t exploit the photos without the photographer’s permission.
The subject of the photo could try to stop distribution of the picture on privacy law grounds, depending on where it was taken, and could also try to stop the photographer from commercialising the image by arguing that their publicity rights were being exploited. Though, laws around privacy and publicity rights vary from country to country. And none of that affects the photographer’s ownership of the copyright.
Numerous famous musicians have been targeted with copyright infringement claims over the years for posting other people’s photos of themselves to social media, including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry and Dua Lipa.
In some cases, the targeted artists have shared unofficial photos taken by a paparazzo. However, most of the images shared by Ozzy Osbourne were formal portrait shots taken by Zlozower. He also shared some concert photos.
Not only is it pretty common for photographers to sue celebrities and artists who use their photos without permission, it’s pretty common for Zlozower to file legal proceedings. Billboard notes that he has now filed nearly 60 copyright cases, including against Elvis Costello, Guns N Roses and Mötley Crüe.
