US columnist lands in copyright trouble

But he is also flying into trouble, after local photographer Jamie Fawcett filed a statement of claim in the NSW Local Court on Tuesday accusing Mr Lavandeira of stealing an exclusive photo of singers Jessica Simpson and John Mayer and publishing it on perezhilton.com without permission. Fawcett is seeking $4400 in damages plus $140 in issue and service fees.

He told The Australian yesterday he intended to serve the court document personally.
According to the claim, on March 31 a photographer employed by Fawcett's agency, PhotoNews, took an original and exclusive photograph of Jessica Simpson and John Mayer arriving at Sydney airport . On April 1, Lavandeira stole a copy of this image and published it on perezhilton.

com without authorisation, it says.
Fawcett said his US agent had sold a set of exclusive snaps of the celebrity couple to the US weekly magazine People for almost $US15,000 ($18,000). He said within hours of the photos appearing on People's website Lavandeira had copied one and posted it on his website.

But Fawcett said the local court action was mostly intended as a warning to Lavandeira. He said PhotoNews was preparing another, more substantive suit to be filed against him in the Supreme Court over issues such as fair use and moral rights if he did not stop using its pictures without permission.
Five US photo agencies have just filed a similar claim for more than $US7 million in damages.

According to a release on the website of agency Splash News, the suit alleges Lavandeira unlawfully publishes the agencies' copyright protected works on a daily basis without their consent, without paying and without crediting the agencies or their photographers.
Perez Hilton is making a mockery of the copyright laws in this country and all over the world, said Chris Doherty, president of agency INF. Lavandeira is becoming a household name, not to mention a very wealthy man, directly on the back of our labours.

Lavandeira was unavailable to comment yesterday but has previously said his use of the photos falls under fair use provisions of the copyright act.