Playboy has filed a lawsuit against Harper’s Bazaar, slamming the magazine for using its photos of British supermodel Kate Moss on its website.
Playboy filed the suit in Manhattan federal court on Friday. According to The Associated Press, the famous men’s magazine claims that Hearst Communications, which publishes Harper’s Bazaar, violated its exclusive contract to use the photos Mert Alas and Marcos Piggott took of Moss.
The New York Daily News notes that the Harper’s site had a link that read, “See Kate Moss’ Full Fab Playboy Spread.” When users clicked that link, it took them to the nude photos of Moss for Playboy’s special 60th anniversary issue.
However, it didn’t take them to Playboy.com. Instead, it went to a site called “entertainment.ie,” which had posted the nude photos.
“Hearst's link to the Entertainment.ie website page cannot be justified by any suggestion that Hearst was reporting the news of Ms. Moss's appearance in the 60th Anniversary Issue,” Playboy’s suit reads.
Playboy said that it’s happy to see the media report on its NSFW photos with the model, but Hearst “well exceeded the bounds of mere news reporting” in an attempt to “to attract and drive Internet visitor traffic.”
Playboy says that Hearst denied attempts to settle the dispute out of court. So, it has decided to sue Hearst for $150,000 in damages.
Hearst has not commented on the lawsuit.
Moss has been a featured Supermodel since the 1980s and celebrated her 40th birthday on Thursday. She is featured on the cover of Playboy’s 60th anniversary issue wearing the famous bunny outfit and ears.
image: Photo by David M. Benett/Getty Images for Rimmel London/image.net