Apple’s no stranger to lawsuits, but this one’s a bit bizarre: a New York photographer is suing Cupertino for using one of her copyrighted photos in an iPhone advertisement. But does she have a case?
The photographer is named Taea Thale, who took a photograph of the band members behind “She and Him”… a band that Apple featured in an advertisement last year for the iPhone 3GS.
During this ad, Thale’s photographs pops up after the iPhone model loads up the local concert finding iLike app. When iLike accesses She and Him’s concert page, Thale’s photograph is displayed on the screen for a few seconds.
According to Thale’s lawyers, this was unauthorized and illegal use of the image, as the photograph was only ever licensed to Merge Media for limited use in magazines and posters.
Even so, it seems like the real company Thale should be suing is iLike. I guess their pockets weren’t deep enough for Thale’s liking.
[via The Loop]