It's been well reported that Rihanna succeeded in her court
case against the retail chain Topshop. The facts were
straightforward – Topshop used a photo of Rihanna on a
t-shirt that it sold, but it never obtained the artist's
consent. The UK court had no hesitation in finding that Top Shop
had infringed Rihanna's rights.
Cases involving the unauthorised usage of celebrity images crop
up from time to time. There was a famous case in the UK where
Formula One driver, Eddie Irvine, successfully sued a radio station
for using a photo of him in a print ad without consent. In
South Africa former Miss SA, Basetsana Khumalo, successfully sued
Cycle Lab for using her image in an ad without consent.
And it was reported a few years back that singer PJ Powers sued an
advertising agency that had used a photo of her in an ad that
appeared in a urinal, whereas soccer boss, Jomo Sono, once
complained about a newspaper ad that linked him to a beer
brand.
