Getty Image / Lintao Zhang
Folks, apologies for being the bearer of this absolutely tragic news, but LeBron James has reportedly posted a picture of himself to his official Facebook page. I know, it’s an absolutely disgusting and unthinkable act for James to post a picture of himself, but you’re not going to get new followers and likes without taking risks.
No, in all seriousness, copyright infringement, while it has a somewhat broad scope, is a very real thing and James is reportedly being sued for committing the act after posting a photo to Facebook.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, photographer Steven Mitchell is suing James and his companies Uninterrupted Digital Ventures and LRMR Ventures, LLC for copyright infringement and seeking $150,000 per infringement as well as “all accounting of profits made from the Facebook post.”
The photo in question, according to the court documents, was taken by Mitchell when James and the Lakers were playing the Heat. The photo is owned and registered by Mitchell, therefore, for James to legally reproduce (or post) this image he would have had to either pay for the photo and/or have consent from Mitchell to share it.
“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, publically display, distribute and/or use the photograph.”
The Blast report indicates that Mitchell believes he is entitled to all profits, income or benefits James received “as a result of its unlawful conduct.”
According to the report, the photo in question here received 1,400 likes and 92 shares. James isn’t the first, nor he will be the last high-profile figure to be sued for copyright infringement after sharing a photo of himself.