According to Bloomberg.com, pop singer Dido is being sued by former NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless for using his 1984 space flight picture for the cover of her album Safe Trip Home.
Posted by: Scott
McCandless said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Los Angeles that he never gave permission for Dido to use the photograph that shows him "free flying" about 320 feet away from the space shuttle Challenger...The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, also names Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment and Getty Images Inc. McCandless said in the complaint that Sony was informed as early as June of last year that the use his image was unauthorized.
Source: Bloomberg.com
Let me see if I have this right: The public paid for the equipment you are wearing. You were fortunate enough to brought there for this once in a lifetime experience on a publicly funded vehicle which was managed by a publicly funded agency and it is YOUR photo? Seriously??
P.S. If it were not a publicly funded mission using United States property Bruce McCandless is the subject of the photo and typically, the photographer would own the photo, not McCandless. He has no grounds to sue.
I think people like this sue in hope of getting a cash settlement. I suspect that is the case with the recent suit over the Vampire Weekend cover, too.
His argument is not a copyright claim, but rather it is based on the claim that it is common knowledge that Bruce McCandless is the only astronaut to have worn that particular gear at that particular distance, and therefore the cover is about Bruce McCandless. I can hardly wait for a judge to laugh at him.
Oh wait, here we go, here we go:
Putting the “ass” in “astronaut” - Bruce McCandless.