Cardi B wins publicity rights legal battle over mixtape artwork

completemusicupdate.com:

Cardi B scored another win in court last week when a jury ruled that she did not infringe the publicity rights of Kevin Brophy, the man whose distinctive tattoo design appeared without permission on the cover of her 2016 mixtape ‘Gangsta Bitch Music Vol 1’.Brophy sued the rapper – real name Belcalis Almánzar – in 2017.

A photo of his distinctive tattoo was Photoshopped onto the cover of the 2016 mixtape, so that it appeared on the back of a man who was positioned to look like he was performing oral sex on the rapper.He argued that the unauthorised use of the tattoo image meant people assumed it was him in the photo, and – given the explicit nature of the artwork – that had resulted in him facing frequent “uncomfortable comments, questions, and ridicule from community members and family”.The long running dispute finally got to trial last week.

A lot of the proceedings – including an eventful testimony from Almánzar herself – focused on whether the rapper had been actively involved in creating the artwork, and also whether people had really connected Brophy to the image before he started talking about it.Almánzar and her lawyer played down the rapper’s active involvement in creating the artwork and releasing the mixtape, and also honed in on the fact that Brophy had failed to bring any third parties to court who confirmed that they had assumed it was him on the cover.Though the key legal argument in the case really was whether Almánzar’s use of Brophy’s tattoo design was ‘fair and transformative use’ and therefore allowed under US free speech laws.

She argued it was, on the basis that the designer of the ‘Gangsta Bitch Music Vol 1’ cover had only used part of Brophy’s tattoo design and had altered it as he Photoshopped it.