I was wondering when this was going to happen: Perez Hilton is getting sued by the photographers whose photos he’s been using. I’m a as sympathetic an audience as Mr. Hilton could possibly hope for: I’m generally pretty hostile toward copyright litigation and I consider demeaning celebrities to be the lord’s work. But even so, this seems extremely clear-cut to me: Perez is fucked; and if he genuinely thinks what he’s been doing counts as fair use, then he’s an idiot, too.
I’m no lawyer, but Perez’s inclusion of a photo in one of his posts doesn’t strike me as a transformative act, and it seems entirely plausible to me that he’s undercutting X17′s ability to sell their work. I’m not allowed to steal content from The Onion, append my own witticisms and claim protection as satire. The fact that Perez is doing something funny with these photos does not automatically mean it falls under the fair use doctrine — besides, fair use is weak ground to stand on these days even when it’s actually applicable.
So yeah: he’s fucked.
