S. Samuel
G-Unit leader 50 Cent is reportedly laughing straight to the bank after winning a lawsuit against popular video-sharing urban website WorldStarHipHop.
According to reports, a ruling in Fif’s favor was made earlier this week.
50 Cent has gotten a partial victory in a lawsuit brought against a DJ who ran hip-hop website WorldStarHipHop.com. The main controversy in the lawsuit had to do with the website’s masthead featuring an image of the rapper. In a ruling on Monday, a federal judge granted the hip-hop star summary judgment on copyright and right of publicity claims. In doing so, the judge rejected affirmative defenses including fair use. (THR)
The ruling noted WorldStarHipHop relied heavily on Fif’s image to helm its website.
According to the ruling, “Defendants provide no authority to support the fair use of a celebrity’s image or likeness. This is not surprising, as a celebrity’s image, standing alone, only evokes that celebrity’s persona. Jackson’s image does not, by itself, describe anything about Defendants’ website.” (THR)
Reports claim WSHH used the rap star’s picture for multiple years dating back nearly a decade.
“From some time in 2005 until March 2009 (with a several month hiatus during 2007 when the website was inactive), Odenat’s website used three different mastheads that included images of Jackson. Plaintiffs commenced this action on June 18, 2009, alleging that Odenat violated their intellectual property rights, used Jackson’s image without permission, and misled the public into believing Odenata’s website was associated with or endorsed by Jackson and G-Unit Records). The three images at issue are shots of Jackson’s face. first two mastheads use images of Jackson directly facing the camera, while the third masthead includes an image of Jackson in profile. (Scribd.)
Calling in to New York City radio station Hot 97 back in 2011, World Star Hip Hop owner Q cleared up rumors about 50 having his site shut down.
“It’s a technical difficulty and has nothing to do with 50 or homeland security or hackers,” he said. “We’re more or less having difficulties with the site itself as far as our server. We’re getting so much traffic we constantly have to upgrade.” To further discredit 50’s claims, Q reminded listeners that the site had been down before. “We were down in ’07 because we got hacked. We got hacked last year and we’ve also had problems with our bandwith before,” he said. According to Q, the site will be up in the next 24 hours. Q also gave 50 Cent a shout out for the “good promo,” although he admitted that he and 50 do have personal beef due to miscommunication and a “falling out a while back.” (Billboard)
50 previously took credit for the site mysteriously being closed in 2011.
“I don’t know why people underestimate me. I just shut downWORLDSTAR for future advertising contact thisis50.com suckers lol,” 50 tweeted Monday (January 24).
“I put worldstar to bed, you don’t believe try me I will shut your sh*t down. Lol”
“I predict 2 more web sites will shut down this week. Take a guess who they are. I’m sick of the hate I’m to strong.” (50 Cent’s Twitter)
