Photographer sues Yahoo for use of his photographs

Howard Schatz is an award winning American photographer, who on Wednesday 21 October 2020 filed a complaint at the Central District of California against Verizon Communications. In 2017 Verizon acquired Yahoo for $4.48billion and is now subject to a copyright infringement claim as it is alleged Yahoo has used Schatz’s photographs without his consent or a proper license.

Schatz is the owner of copyright in the photographs. He alleges that Yahoo has wilfully copied and reproduced his photographs for financial gain and has done so without his permission. It is Schatz’s belief that Yahoo has gathered the infringing content from his website and social media pages which it has then created derivative works from. In addition, Schatz alleges that Yahoo removed any information regarding copyright from his photographs and added false information in its place. As a result of this alleged infringement, Schatz is claiming he has suffered harm.

Schatz is claiming an injunction to stop Verizon and its subsidiary Yahoo from continuing to use the image and for the image to be removed from all publications. Schatz is also claiming damages as well as an award for Verizon’s’ profits.

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