Photographer sues grandmother’s family for posting his photo-wallpaper on a flat rental site

If you thought the world was going crazy with lawsuits, this one might take the cake. Photographer Stefan Böhme is allegedly suing a woman in Germany for unauthorised image use in a rental apartment listing.

What’s so strange about that, you might wonder? Well, the photograph in the listing is of the interior of the apartment belonging to the woman’s 90-year-old grandmother. The image happens to include photo wallpaper made with Böhme’s licensed photograph.

The wallpaper features a slate effect, mimicking real stone, to add as a textural feature to a wall. The family apparently purchased the wallpaper in 2012. Three years later, the woman needed to move out of the apartment and enter residential nursing care. Her grand daughter listed the apartment as a tourist flat rental in order to help cover the high costs of her care.

The granddaughter received a letter from a Canadian company accusing her of copyright infringement due to the wallpaper in the image. The photographer is now suing the granddaughter in Cologne Regional Court in Cologne, Germany, according to Heis, where he is seeking royalties for the use of the wall paper.

Böhme is allegedly hoping to win the case based on a precedent where a furniture catalogue was sued for featuring a painting in the background of their images without the artist’s permission.

According to the Cologne courts, the woman should have researched who the photographer who took the photo for the wallpaper was and then acknowledged him in the rental listing. The courts of Dusseldorf and Stutgart were also petitioned, but they took a dim view of Böhme’s claims on the wallpaper.

The judges in Cologne, however, say that “objects that appear in the background of photos posted online are also often subject to copyright. Whether a fading photo wallpaper, a fancy radio receiver or a colorful vase is hidden in the image makes no difference in terms of intellectual property rights.”

According to Heise Online, the granddaughter could end up having to pay out around €8,500 ($9224) in court fees and fines if she loses the appeal. All this for a wallpaper she bought legally for €22. No wonder she feels “ripped off”, I think I would too.

This seems absolutely crazy. If a person has purchased photo-licenced wallpaper and installed it in their private property, as intended, there should not be any violation of copyright. The photographs were of the interior of the house, as is. Are we now required to get permission from Ikea to show photos of its furniture as well? I would hope the judges can be sensible and consider this to fall under fair use.

Otherwise I have to assume that the world truly has gone mad. Can we just stop with the needless lawsuits? Don’t we have better things to do than worry about than Wallpaper-Gate?

[via petapixel]

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