![\"jay-z\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jay-z-800x420.jpg\")
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A photographer has filed a lawsuit against a Brooklyn art gallery, accusing it of selling figurines based on his copyrighted photo of Jay-Z.<\/p>\n
According to a report by Complex,<\/a> American celebrity portrait photographer Timothy White, whose 1988 image of a young Jay-Z<\/a> is at the center of the case. The portrait captures a teenage Jay-Z posed against a white studio backdrop, wearing a red-and-navy striped top, red trousers, and gold jewellery. White\u2019s photograph is officially registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.<\/p>\n According to court documents,<\/a> filed by New York\u2013based photo agency August Image LLC on behalf of White, Brooklyn gallery AM:PM allegedly sold collectible figurines called \u201cJaybois\u201d based on his photo of the rap icon sometime around 2020. Court exhibits include screenshots from AM:PM\u2019s Instagram accounts, including a page dedicated specifically to the figurines, showing the toys posed at landmarks across New York City.<\/p>\n Complex reports that the lawsuit claims that the gallery not only sold the \u201cJaybois\u201d without permission but also used White\u2019s photograph on social media to market the figurines, reproducing and publicly displaying the image without authorization. The complaint states that the gallery \u201ccopied, reproduced, displayed, and\/or distributed\u201d the copyrighted portrait in connection with commercial sales. The suit also accuses AM:PM of creating unlawful derivative works, arguing that the gallery cropped and modified White\u2019s original photograph for use in promotions related to the figurines.<\/p>\n August Image is seeking a jury trial, statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringement, and disgorgement of any profits the gallery earned through the allegedly unauthorised use of the image. The agency is also asking the court to bar AM:PM from further exploiting the photograph. Although some of the alleged infringements of White\u2019s photographs may date back more than three years, August claims it had \u201cno reason to know\u201d the photograph was being used until recently, a point it raises in support of extending the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n The case comes after Jay-Z settled a lawsuit with photographer Jonathan Mannion over images that he was selling of the rapper<\/a> \u2014 claiming that he made an \u201carrogant assumption that because he took those photographs, he can do with them as he pleases.\u201d Mannion was the photographer who shot some of the rapper\u2019s most iconic album covers, including Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint. The dispute reflects ongoing tensions between photographers and celebrities<\/a> over who controls the commercial use of their images. Rapper Snoop Dogg similarly argued that photographers should not own the photos<\/a> they take of celebrities.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you take a picture of a n***a, that picture ain\u2019t yours,\u201d Snoop Dogg said in a video. \u201cThat\u2019s a mere likeness-type situation. You\u2019re borrowing my likeness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A photographer has filed a lawsuit against a Brooklyn art gallery, accusing it of selling figurines based on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2493,62853,146,85,46,94079,3195,409,94080],"class_list":{"0":"post-155413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-copyright","9":"tag-copyrightinfringement","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-jayz","14":"tag-lawsuit","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-portraitphotographer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}