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Court Documents State How Perez Hilton Stole Robert Caplin’s Images of Glee Star Darren Criss

Chris Gampat
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06/29/2013
2 Mins read

Last Updated on 06/29/2013 by Chris Gampat

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Image from the Court Case used with permission

Yesterday, we reported on Freelance Photographer Robert Caplin suing entertainment blogger Perez Hilton for loads of cash. To refresh, Caplin is suing for $150,000 x 14 due to the fact that Hilton took 14 images of Glee star Darren Criss from Caplin’s website without permission or paying for them and commodified them for himself–which comes out to $150,000 per image.

However, it’s a bit more complicated than that. After hours of Googling, we were able to find the court docs.

According to the court docs, Caplin put in measures on his website that prevent people from stealing his images. But what Hilton did instead to get around the security  was screenshot them. Caplin discovered the images one day later back in January of 2012, and found that Hilton added his watermark and hyperlinked the images for the readers to shop for clothing.

Hilton claimed that the images were via the NYTimes, and that one photo didn’t have Caplin’s watermark. When Caplin called Hilton, he apologized and pledged to remove the images. Caplin waited months until filing a lawsuit in May 2012 and specifically stated that he didn’t allow Hilton to take the images and that he is the creator and proprietor. Hilton hasn’t compensated Caplin, and the court docs actually list other instances of this happening to other photographers.

Carolyn E Wright, who is part of Photo Attorney and is representing Caplin, denied to comment on the case.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.