Perez Hilton, Defender Of Bloggers Rights?

Celebrity Gossip Blogger Faces Three Copyright Infringement Lawsuits

(CBS)  He's facing three lawsuits for copyright infringement, but that's OK with notorious celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who sees himself as something of an activist for bloggers' rights.

"In a perfect world, you'd rather not be sued than be sued, but I think from his standpoint all these lawsuits essentially stem from the same exact issue," his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, tells The Showbuzz. "It's the rights of bloggers to the fair use of published photos that are on the Internet and the right to use them for satire and commentary. I think Perez is excited to be the one that makes the law in this area and is fully prepared to go all the way if he needs to in order to make that law."

Perez, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, takes celebrity photos, doodles on them, posts them on his popular blog, perezhilton.com and adds commentary.

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Perez Hilton Visits The BlogBuzz Podcast

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"He uses them in a transformative way and then opens a dialog of commentary. Whether you like the commentary or not is a different story," said Freedman.

"I totally disagree, obviously, that what he does constitutes fair use," Brandy Navarre, VP of X17, which sued Lavandeira in November for more than $7.5 million, told The Showbuzz. "I don't feel that what he does qualifies (as satire). These are not all newsworthy photos, (and) he's not altering the photos enough to make a difference. Sometimes just writing a question mark isn't satirizing significantly enough to make a difference. And the volume at which he uses the images is out of bounds."

Universal City Studios Productions LLP filed a lawsuit against Lavandeira in February, claiming a stolen image of a topless Jennifer Aniston from the set of her movie "The Breakup" was posted on Lavandeira's site.

In late April, five photo agencies joined together to sue Lavandeira for $7 million for using their photos and videos.

His lawyer argues that Lavandeira has merely used photos that were already published elsewhere on the Web.

"If it's not already out on the Internet, it's protected," argues Freedman. "He's not in the business of taking watermarks or anything like that. I can't for the life for me understand how a photographer has been hurt when the photograph has already been published on the Internet."

Navarre claims Lavandeira's actions have hurt her company's bottom line.

"We've seen prices definitely drop since he's been infringing our images," she said. "We've had sales completely dropped because photo editors have named his site as the reason they have decided not to use the photo or as the reason why they have asked for a reduced fee because they say, 'well everybody else has already seen it because it's on Perez.'"

Some bloggers feel that Lavandeira, whose ads on his Web site are priced at $5,000 a week, earns enough revenue to pay for the use of agency photos.

"Honestly, it makes total sense to me that bloggers who are making money off their sites should have to pay for the use of photos," Lisa Timmons of A Socialite's Life told The Showbuzz. "We do, and I think that it's only fair that the photographers who are out there doing the dirty work should be compensated for it. I certainly have no interest in running around, chasing down starlets in SUVs with a camera. I'm too lazy."

Other bloggers say they won't be affected by the outcome of the lawsuits against Lavandeira.

"It doesn't really affect me and it doesn't worry me, because I know that I'm doing the right thing," Celebrity Baby Blog creator Danielle Friedland told The Showbuzz. "One thing that sets my site apart is that we are now paying for our images. I am making a salary, I'm paying my contributors."

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Perez Hilton On The Hilton-Lohan Affair

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Bennett Marcus of Open All Night agrees. "It's not that we don't use paparazzi photos," he told The Showbuzz. "The fact is that we do not use photos without permission. That's the issue that Perez is being sued for."

But, Ron Mwangagahunga of The Corsair blog thinks the photo agencies are taking the wrong approach.

"Couldn't they have settled for a highly visible link, which, in terms of personal advertising, might even be to their advantage professionally?" he told The Showbuzz. "I believe that the daily blogs are the best friends of the paparazzi, whether by captioning their photos with snarky commentary or simply displaying them prominently across the blogosphere, thus enlarging their value to the weekly tabloids.

"I just don't see why the automatic recourse is to the courts when, in many ways, celebrity bloggers and the paparazzi have enough in common that they could complement one another against the true and common enemy: the PR people who want to control the images of celebrities," he added.

The three lawsuits, all of which were filed in the United States District Court in Los Angeles, are still in the preliminary stages. A scheduling hearing to discuss the discovery process for the X17 lawsuit is set for June 18.

[jjp735i]

The man makes his money writing about a spoiled, drug addicted drunk. Of course he is going to fight for that right!

[xzavierbrown]

only a moron would believe that this 'celebrity gossip' blogger is actually fighting for anything other than making a name for himself.

[asor1-2009]

This uber-ugly parasite has put some very disgusting marks on photos on his supposed "tell-all" site. Unfortunately, most of the time they are disgusting. Get some toilet paper and wipe him out.

[olebd]

He actually looks somewhat normal in this photo. Most other photos, he has pink or blue hair and wears clothes that should be confined to moth balls. A real fruity, freak.

[dylanxxv]

Put him/it back in the closet and nail the door shut...

[ajaxrose1]

What a butt wipe. If what he's doing infringes on the ability for someone to make their money from their photo, then this little twerp is in the wrong. They have a name for creatures like him in nature: parasite.

[phoenix1218]

Perez Hilton has GOT to be THE most BUT ugly mut I have ever seen