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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Photographer claims cigar distributor ran image without permission

Copyright 09

SHERMAN – A Florida photographer has brought a copyright lawsuit against a cigar distributor in Plano.

Bryan Glynn’s complaint, which was filed on Dec. 21 in Sherman federal court, alleges ESM Cigars, LLC used an image attributed to the plaintiff on its Web site without permission.

The suit shows that Glynn himself maintains a Web site devoted to cigar reviews and disseminating information about cigar products. He claims the subject picture appeared on the Cigar Obsession site in conjunction with a review of the H. Upmann Sungrown Lancero cigar.

According to court papers, the defendant, doing business as Cigar Warehouse, ran the artwork on several pages of its site for the purposes of marketing its sale of the same cigar. 

“As published by the plaintiff, the photo bore a watermark identifying the plaintiff’s photography company – BGPictures,” the original petition says. “In addition, directly adjacent to the photo was an authorship credit to the plaintiff, and a hyperlink to his contact information, including his photography website BGPictures.com – which contains information regarding the use of the plaintiff’s photographs. Moreover, a copyright notice appeared at the bottom of the plaintiff’s contact information page – specifically advising users that all content was copyrighted, and could not be used without express permission.”

ESM purportedly cropped out Glynn’s watermark and omitted the other identifying information described above in connection with its unauthorized use and display of his photograph. Last September, the complainant reached out to the respondent to no avail.

Consequently, Glynn seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.

He is represented by attorney R. Buck McKinney of the Law Office of Buck McKinney, PC in Austin.

Sherman Division of the Eastern District of Texas Case No. 4:17-CV-0880

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