{"id":5888,"date":"2025-05-18T05:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T05:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/tupac-shakur-notorious-b-i-g-photos-at-center-of-copyright-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T05:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T05:56:11","slug":"tupac-shakur-notorious-b-i-g-photos-at-center-of-copyright-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/tupac-shakur-notorious-b-i-g-photos-at-center-of-copyright-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Tupac Shakur & Notorious B.I.G. Photos at Center of Copyright Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tL<\/span>egendary rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. might have been rivals in life, but they\u2019re now united in copyright litigation.<\/p>\n

\n\tA pair of photographers who snapped separate photos of the late hip-hop stars are teaming up to sue Univision for copyright infringement, accusing the broadcaster of using the images without permission in a web article about \u201cUnsolved\u201d murders.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiffs sent a letter to Univision, demanding that it cease and desist all publication and display of the Subject Photographs,\u201d write lawyers for the photographers in their Wednesday suit. \u201cUnivision has failed to meaningfully respond, necessitating this action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe case was filed by the estate of Chi Modu<\/strong>, a well-known hip hop photographer, over a black and white picture of Biggie looking into the camera in his trademark Coogi sweater and sunglasses; and by Dana Lixenberg<\/strong>, another acclaimed photog who has snapped pictures of Iggy Pop<\/a> and Steely Dan<\/a>, over an image of Pac in a bandana and sports jersey.<\/p>\n

\n\tAttorneys for Modu\u2019s estate and Lixenberg say Univision stitched the images together and used them as art for a 2018 article reporting that a trailer had been released for a USA Network documentary series called Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\tThough Biggie and Tupac have both been gone for nearly 30 years, Wednesday\u2019s lawsuit is just one of many recent intellectual property battles over the two iconic rappers.<\/p>\n

\n\tModu\u2019s estate filed one of them, suing Universal Music Group in 2022 for allegedly using a Tupac photo in a blog post. Then last year, Shakur\u2019s own estate threatened to sue Drake for using an AI-generated version of the later rapper\u2019s voice. And in February, Biggie\u2019s estate filed a lawsuit against Target, Home Depot and other retailers over allegations that they sold unauthorized canvas prints of the famed \u201cKing of New York\u201d photo. Coogi even got in on the action in 2018, suing the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> after they released a multi-colored jersey that were \u201cinspired by Biggie\u201d and paid homage to the Brooklyn-born rapper.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one case, Biggie\u2019s estate sued Modu himself, claiming the photographer had illegally authorized the use of his photos on commercial products like skateboards and shower curtains. In 2022, a year after the famed photographer passed away, a judge ruled that such merch likely violated the rapper\u2019s likeness rights. The case ended in a settlement last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tReps for Univision did not immediately return a request for comment on the new lawsuit on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legendary rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. might have been rivals in life, but they\u2019re now united in copyright litigation. A pair of photographers who snapped separate photos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5989,988,429,303,5988,390,4714,576],"class_list":["post-5888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-b-i-g","tag-center","tag-copyright","tag-lawsuit","tag-notorious","tag-photos","tag-shakur","tag-tupac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}