Rihanna is in legal hot water once again over claims she plagiarized images for her 2010 “S&M,” music video.
The singer, who settled out of court with David LaChapelle in 2011 after he sued her for directly copying his work, is facing legal action from photographer Philipp Paulus for allegedly the same offense.
He claims that scenes of the raunchy video are almost identical to his set, production, and photos. His fashion series, “Paperworld,” features a woman held to the wall in plastic, taped with large “X” marks, an image similar to one that appears in the video.
German born, New York based Paulus has filed for an injunction and is asking for damages, after failing to settle out of court with the singer and Universal Music.
The copyright case will be tried in Stuttgart, Germany on April 15 with Paulus’ legal fees being paid for by Foris Legal Financing. If he wins, the video could be banned from YouTube and television.
In 2011, photographer David LaChapelle sued Rihanna and her label Def Jam for $1 million, alleging they copied images from a shoot he did for Italian Vogue for the video. They settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. “I like RiRi,” LaChapelle said at the time. “This is not personal, it’s strictly business. Musicians commonly pay to sample music or use someone’s beats and there should be no difference when sampling an artist’s visuals.”
As reported by Page Six Monday, we’re told Rihanna has won a more than $10 million settlement from accountant Peter Gounis and the firm Berdon LLP after their bad advice caused her to almost go broke. She is expected to sign the settlement papers this week.
Reps for the star didn’t immediately get back to us.