High street shop Topshop have been selling a tank top with a picture of Rihanna on it from her We Found Love music video but they never asked her if they could use the photo so now the singer is taking legal action!
Riri and her Reed Smith legal team have spent the last 8 months trying to negotiate an image-rights fee ”but they offered her $5,000 and said they don’t care”.
A source has said the following:
“Rihanna’s management asked Topshop a number of times to stop selling her image and were told, ‘We do what we want.’ They buy the pictures from a photographer, but they do not pay the artist licensing fees. Unfortunately, UK law does not protect the artist. What is most offensive for Rihanna is that they basically told her, ‘Go to hell. We don’t care; we are going to continue selling you.’ Topshop is now in the United States. They set up in Manhattan and Nordstrom, but they know better than to do this in the US because they would get in trouble.”
“Even though the UK laws don’t protect the artist, she has decided to move forward and sue Topshop. She has spent almost $1 million in litigation at this point. She says it’s the principle, and wants to make a statement about it. They are taking advantage of artists. It is just exploitation. What they are doing is wrong.”
Rihanna is not going to give in as she wants the company to stop making money off her image but now a source from Topshop has said:
“This issue is related to a T-shirt provided to Topshop by a third-party supplier. We are aware it is the subject of litigation. [There are] public documents available for inspection in the London court. The amount of damages sought has not been articulated anywhere in the claimant’s document.”
[Photo Via: Instagram]
Filed under: Fashion, Legal, Money, Rihanna Tagged: Law, Law of the United Kingdom, Manhattan, Nordstrom, Reed Smith, Rihanna, Topshop, United States
