Did Annie Leibovitz Steal Pictures?

9/6/2009
Alexia Nader
Annie Leibovitz is being sued by an Italian photographer for stealing pictures and using them in a calendar without permission.

More bad news for Annie Leibovitz—an Italian photographer, Paolo Pizzetti, has accused Leibovitz of stealing his photographs and passing them off as her own in a 2009 calendar for the coffee company, Lavazza. Pizzetti filed a court order to stop the circulation of the images and is asking for $300,000 in restitution for copyright infringement.

In the legal papers filed by Pizzetti, the photographer claims that Leibovitz hired him to scout locations for the calendar photo shoot. When he sent Leibovitz some digital photos that he had taken in Venice and Rome via email, he received a reply saying that the photo shoot had been cancelled. Once the published calendar was released, Pizzetti identified two of his photos as backgrounds with models superimposed on top.

Leibovitz's party declined to comment on the Pizzetti case. It seems like they have more than enough on their hands dealing with the other huge lawsuit filed against the celebrity photographer for nonpayment on a $24 million loan.

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