Model Britni Sumida Initiates Copyright Infringement Claim against Volvo
Background
In April 2019, Schroeder and Sumida did a photoshoot that featured a Volvo S60 sedan.
These photos were posted on Instagram by Schroeder. Impressed with the photos, Volvo contacted Schroeder and asked for permission to use the images posted on Instagram for commercial purposes without offering any compensation in return.
The automotive photographer refused to let Volvo use the images for free and instead made an offer to Volvo over email to see if they would license the images.
Volvo never replied to the offer and in November 2019, Schroeder saw the photos that he had shot on Volvo’s Instagram and Pinterest accounts. The images that were posted by Volvo also included two that were posted on Schroeder's Behance account.
As a result, Schroeder and Britni Sumida filed a lawsuit against Volvo and accused them of copyright infringement, unfair competition and misappropriation of likeness.
Volvo's Arguments
Volvo has argued that according to Instagram's terms of service any user content that gets posted on the App has become public, and it “may be reshared by others.”
Volvo’s attorneys, Harrison Dossick and Jonathan Gershon stated in a Court filing that, “By electing to make his account public and by not choosing settings that would prevent others from resharing his content, Schroeder granted Volvo and other Instagram users a license to reshare the Instagram photographs and all the other content Schroeder posts on his Instagram page.”
Volvo's Arguments lacks merit, says Schroder's lawyer
While Schroeder's lawyer, Jeff Gluck, in a statement to the blog PetaPixil, said Volvo’s argument “has absolutely zero legal merit and we look forward to further educating their counsel during trial.”
Warning about the repercussions Volvo’s argument could have on all artists who promote their work on social media sites, Gluck said, “Volvo’s argument, that they can allegedly take and exploit any photo publicly posted on Instagram, is dangerous, chilling and wrong.”
The case will be significant for determining the rights that artists have on their work and if at all these rights are affected if any artist posts his work on any social media platform.
