On Wednesday a case was filed in the Eastern District of New York by Stephen Yang against Zuckerman Plastic Surgery. The plaintiff alleges that the defendant used copyrighted materials for advertising without permission.
The plaintiff is a professional photographer with customers including The New York Post, Slate, Getty, and other publications. Yang’s livelihood, per the complaint, comes from the sale of and commission from photographs, so the violation of copyright protection diminishes his livelihood.
The plaintiff is the holder of a copyright on “Mother-Daughter” under the United States Copyright Office from 2017, the complaint said. The complaint said that the photo was previously published on The New York Post website, in an article also from 2017.
According to the complaint, the photo has been published on the defendant’s website in several locations with the credit removed and no royalties being paid. The plaintiff sent a cease and desist letter and made several attempts to contact and resolve the dispute with the defendant, but no contact was made.
Plaintiff is suing for copyright infringement and falsification, removal, and alteration of copyright management information. Plaintiff is represented by Higbee & Associates.
