ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Post-Dispatch LLC is facing a federal lawsuit for allegedly publishing a photograph of rocker Ted Nugent without giving credit to the photographer.
In a lawsuit filed May 4 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Indianapolis resident Larry G. Philpot claims the daily newspaper uploaded his photo of Ted Nugent to illustrate a 2016 blog post without crediting him or including his watermark.
Philpot, a professional photographer who works exclusively with concert events across the United States, had published his photo on Wikimedia under a Creative Commons license, which allows others to use the photo if they include attribution. He published the photo on Wikimedia to increase his marketability and reputation, and to gain more work.
Philpot is now accusing the paper of copyright infringement and violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA was the foundation of an effort by Congress to move the country’s copyright laws into the digital age. The complaint alleges the Post-Dispatch had used the Nugent photo without attribution or authorization “for driving traffic to its respective websites.”
“Defendant owns, operates, or has a financial interest in or benefit from the website,” the complaint said.
It also alleges that the paper not only displayed the copyrighted photo without consent or permission, but also removed his watermark from the photo before publishing it online.
“Despite having no permission, consent, or license to do so, Defendant has for commercial gain and purpose reproduced, distributed, and publicly displayed… the Nugent Photo, with the DMCA copyright management information and metadata striped from all versions of the Nugent Photo.”
Philpot is asking for a trial by jury. He is also asking for monetary damages in the form of “all profits” and “monetary advantage” the newspaper gained through its alleged infringement.