In BWP Media USA v. Gossip Cop
Media, a case sure to bring cheer to paparazzi
and tabloid publishers everywhere, a judge in the Southern District
of New York has found after a bench trial that a gossip website
willfully infringed copyrights in photos showing celebrities Mila
Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Robert Pattinson, and Liberty Ross.
The plaintiff in the case, BWP Media, is an entity that
purchases "freelance celebrity photographs" and licenses
them to The Sun and other tabloids. The defendant, Gossip
Cop Media, operates a website at gossipcop.com.
Gossip Cop (perhaps for the benefit of readers who might otherwise
be inclined to assume that tabloid news stories are always
well-researched and accurate) reposts tabloid stories along with
their pictures, discusses the accuracy of those stories, and rates
them on a scale of "real" to "rumor." For
instance, readers can helpfully learn from the site that one
well-known actress "was NOT hiding her belly at LAX airport
