Taea Hale, an independent photographer from New York, is suing Apple under the claim that they used one of her copyrighted photographs in an iPhone television ad.
Court documents indicate that Thale took photos of the band “She and Him,” which Apple featured in their commercial without asking permission or giving credit. Thale’s lawyers claim that she only authorized one license of the photo to Merge Media for limited use in magazines and posters, and had never licensed the photo to Apple.
The curious part of the situation is that the iPhone commercial in question simply shows a picture of the band’s album cover, as well as a picture of the band shown within a ticker purchasing app when buying tickets for a concert. It doesn’t seem as if Apple has used the photo in any way that’s not already publicly available.
Of course, considering the huge wad of cash that pretty much everyone knows that Apple has, it’s not surprising for people to want to take a chunk of it in any way they can. The commercial is shown below.
