You might recall that in August last year, the Kardashians waged war against the paparazzi. But it wasn't because of invasion of privacy or any of the other reasons you'd expect.
In fact, it was down to copyright law and image licensing!
Khloé Kardashian responded to people lamenting the loss of their favourite fan pages by revealing that she'd actually been sued by the paparazzi for failing to license an image of herself that she'd shared on social media.
Yes!! I have to license some of the images first. A paparazzi sued me in the past for reposting an image of MYSELF. So now it just takes me a little longer because I have to go and license the images so they don’t get my 💰 MAKES NO SENSE. https://t.co/GNUWUWUxZl
For anyone who's confused, here's why this is happening: Copyright dictates that photographs are protected from the moment they're created, and that the owner of the work is generally the photographer. After photographing famous people, the paparazzi sell their images to photo agencies who then circulate them to the media for a fee. Any time you see a paparazzi photo of a celebrity either on a website or in a magazine, it’s because the outlet has “licensed” the image by paying for it. Therefore, posting a paparazzi image without a credit, license or permission from the owner not only results in copyright infringement but loss of earnings for the photo agency, since images lose their value once shared to millions of Instagram followers for free.
Kim Kardashian then jumped into the discussion, telling fans she "hated" the predicament and pledged to find a solution.
I hate that the paparazzi agencies get all of the fan accounts shut down! Ugh we have to think of something! Maybe start our own agency? And let all of the fans post whatever tf they want!!!!! Let me brainstorm w the fam!
Well, proving once again that she's a woman of her word, Kim has indeed come up with a solution: Hiring her own personal paparazzo whose images she can repost as much as she damn pleases.
Kim made the announcement on Twitter, telling fans that from now on they'd be able to repost any photos on her social media accounts aside from specifically tagged images.
Fans immediately began thanking Kim.
With some even calling the decision "groundbreaking."
And many more were just pleased that they could see and share photos of their fave.
