LeBron James is easily one of the biggest names in all of sports, but when you are at the top, there are always people that will want to swoop in and either take you down or take something that you have.
In the word of photography, you can actually catch a lawsuit by using a photo of yourself without permission of the person who took it. Famous people get sued all the time over it, and LeBron is just the latest.
Court documents obtained by The Blast state photographer Steven Mitchell is suing LeBron James and his companies Uninterrupted Digital Ventures and LRMR Ventures, LLC.
Mitchell explains, “This is an action for copyright infringement under Section 501 of the Copyright Act. This action arises out of Defendant’s unauthorized reproduction and public display of a copyrighted photograph of NBA basketball player Lebron James during a basketball game against the Miami Heat, owned and registered by Mitchell, a professional photographer.”
“The photographer explains he is in the business of licensing his photographs for money. He snapped James while playing a game with the Miami Heat.
Mitchell accuses James of taking his photo and posting it on his official Facebook page. The post received ed 1,4000 likes and 92 shares.
The suit claims James didn’t ask for permission or pay a dime to use the photo of himself. The suit reads, “Defendants did not license the Photograph from Plaintiff for its Website, nor did Defendants have Plaintiff’s permission or consent to publish the Photograph on its Website.”
It continues:
“Defendants infringed Plaintiff’s copyright in the Photograph by reproducing and publicly displaying the Photograph on the Website. Defendants are not, and has never been, licensed or otherwise authorized to reproduce, publicly display, distribute and/or use the Photograph.”
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Mitchell is suing James for copyright infringement and seeking $150,000 per infringement. He also wants James to fork over all accounting of profits made from the Facebook post.
The Blast reports he believes he is entitled to all profits, income or benefits James received “as a result of it’s unlawful conduct.”
