Hit Cleb Gossip Blog: Rihanna sued over 'S+M' video again

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Rihanna sued over 'S+M' video again

24 June 2011

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Rihanna is being sued by a second photographer, Philipp Paulus, who claims her 'S+M' video steals his work.

Rihanna is being sued by a second photographer who claims her 'S+M' video steals his work.

The Barbadian singer was first handed a lawsuit over the raunchy video by fashion photographer David LaChappelle who alleges "the music video is directly derived from and substantially similar to the LaChapelle works".

Now a second photographer, Paris based Philipp Paulus, has joined him with a second copyright infringement suit, saying his images were recreated without permission for 'S+M's bondage themed video.

the music video is directly derived from and substantially similar to the LaChapelle works

He singles out a particular shot of his own where a model in a billowy gown is trapped against a wall by a sheet of plastic, surrounded by large X symbols made from black tape, which is very similar to how Rihanna is presented in part of her video.

Philipp told Radaronline.com: "Why a worldwide celebrity is not able to afford a creative director, who creates individual concepts and stagings, is incomprehensible to me.

"To create new things within the creative cosmos, you can only expect this to come from a real genius.

"However, in this case there is no real genius who created their own work; instead they stole ideas from a creative talent."

Neither Rihanna nor her record company, Universal Music, have made comment on the video, directed by Melina Matsoukas.