It’s another month, another lawsuit for Blac Chyna.
The model/entrepreneur/former partner of Rob Kardashian was sued this week by a photo agency over photos of Chyna postehd to her Instagram account.
In the suit, filed in federal court in California on Monday, BackGrid USA alleges that Chyna — real name Angela Renee White — made unauthorized use of its photos of her.
According to the suit, White pilfered pictures of herself outside Hollywood nightclub Nightingale and in an office-building parking lot, posting them to her Instagram account in September and October. BackGrid alleges that the images were “altered to remove the CMI [Copyright Management Information] showing plaintiff as the copyright owner of the images.”
BackGrid says that the images had been licensed to JustJared.com and The Daily Mail for publication, but no such agreement was reached with White.
“Plaintiff never licensed any of the Photographs to defendants,” the suit reads. “Nonetheless, defendants, have used, and continued to use, the Photographs without authorization or permission from plaintiff to do so.”
“White’s Instagram post made the Photographs immediately available to her 13.5 million followers and other consumers of entertainment news — especially news and images of White herself, as evidenced by their status as followers of White — who would otherwise be interested in viewing licensed versions of the Photographs in the magazines and newspapers that are plaintiff’s customers,” BackGrid contends.
BackGrid additionally says that the unauthorized use was “commercial in nature,” since White uses her Instagram feed for promotional purposes, and that White in fact used one of the photos to promote the clothing brand Fashion Nova, which White is paid to endorse.
TheWrap has reached out to Blac Chyna for comment.
Alleging copyright infringement, the suit is seeking an injunction against White using the photos, plus unspecified damages.
White was hit with a similar lawsuit in November by photo agency FameFlynet, which alleges that White infringed on its copyright of a photo of her, Kardashian and her son by posting it on Instagram in December 2016.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.