Woman alleges magazine used photos without her consent

HOUSTON - Asserting a rival publication used her pictures online without her permission, Katy resident Shannan Lamb-Parker seeks legal recourse.

A lawsuit filed Aug. 23 in the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division claims Houston Pet Talk Magazine, LLC "willfully infringed the plaintiff’s copyright in seven separate photographs when the defendant published these photographs in the March 2012 edition of its magazine and online at www.houstonpettalk.com."

The original petition shows Lamb-Parker took the images in question at a Dog Daze event at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Sugar Land and published them on the Web site of her magazine, Texas Dogs and Magazine, earlier this year.

Lamb-Parker alleges the respondent released the March print issue of its magazine featuring her photos in February, stating photography credit was not given with the published snapshots.

According to the plaintiff, she immediately notified the defendant of the supposed infringement through e-mail and demanded payment for the "wrongfully" published photographs to no avail.

"The defendant did respond, but asserted that it had obtained the photos through a third party, and to date, it has refused to compensate the plaintiff in any way for the use of her photos," the suit says.

It adds the pictures still remain on the respondent's site.

Consequently, Lamb-Parker seeks unspecified monetary damages and a permanent injunction enjoining the defendant from infringing on her copyrighted materials.

She is represented by attorney Dimitri Karhu of Houston.

Case No. 4:12-cv-2548