Nicki Minaj Slapped With Paparazzi Lawsuit Over Instagram Posts
By Ryan Naumann on July 8, 2019 at 7:01 AM EDT
Nicki Minaj has been slapped with a lawsuit by paparazzi who claim she screwed them over by posting their photos without asking them.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Splash News and Picture Agency has filed a lawsuit against the rapper.
The lawsuit accuses Minaj of using multiple copyrighted images they took and using them without permission or authorization.
Splash News and Picture Agency claims that they took multiple photos of the musician including one of her wearing a multicolored Oscar De La Renta gown outside of the Harper’s Bazaar Party in New York City in November 2017, two other photos of the rapper in a plaid Burberry outfit in New York taken in August 2018, another of her outside a New York Fashion Week party in New York in September 2018 and a couple more of her in a cheetah print outfit in the same month.
The agency claims that Minaj used all of the photos on her Instagram account without ever having licensed any of the images from Splash. They claim they never even gave her permission but she posted them on her @nickiminaj account starting in September, 2017 and the most recent on September 11, 2018.
They point out she has over 91 million Instagram followers and her page is public for anyone to see.
Splash fired off legal notices to Minaj of her infringement through letters in December 2017 and March 2018. They even sent over a draft of the lawsuit they planned on filing against her.
They accuse Minaj of refusing to comply and continued to post their images. Splash claims to have lost out on a ton of profits by her posting their photos, which they say causes the value to go down.
The suit continues, “In addition, defendant’s unauthorized use is expressly commercial in nature. Minaj uses her Instagram feed for the purpose of promotion—specifically, to promote her business interests, products, and ventures; to promote and sell the products and services of others; to maintain and increase her visibility and desirability as an endorser, actress, model, and entertainment personality; and to promote her persona and celebrity status. In short, every one of Minaj’s Instagram posts is fundamentally promoting something to her 91 million followers.”
The rapper is currently promoting her new music after dropping the single "Megatron." The music video even featured her boyfriend Kenneth Petty.
