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Artist Joe Coleman has sued HBO for using his painting without permission

A Brooklyn-based famous artist named Joe Coleman has filed a claim against the famous production house HBO. Joe Coleman claims that HBO used his painting without permission which them guilty of copyright infringement. Now, it is known that HBO also filed a petition in the court to reject the lawsuit. However, Judge Margo Brodie rejected this plea from HBO which means that the case will go on for trials.

HBO also claims that its use of the artwork qualifies as fair use. Talking about the case, Brooklyn Federal Court last June received a copyright infringement lawsuit from Joe Coleman. The artist has alleged HBO of using his 2014 artwork named No One Can Enter the Lord’s House Except as a Child (Slenderman), in the true-crime documentary “Beware the Slenderman,”

Coleman says that the movie that was released by HBO in 2017 shows his painting for 25 seconds in one of the last frames of the documentary. He describes his painting as “Slenderman wrapping his elongated fingers around the two children”. Joe claims that no one from HBO has ever approached him for permission to his painting. On the contrary, he says that HBO created an impression online that the painting is available for anyone to reuse without permission.

He also adds in the lawsuit claim that “the documentary goes on to misrepresent [Coleman’s] valuable painting as an example of ‘Slenderman fan art,’”. He alleges that HBO tried to devalue his painting by describing it as fan art. The artist is said to be seeking damages from the production house which are unspecified at the moment. Also, he is seeking the removal of HBO’s documentary from the marketplace.

HBO moved a motion against this lawsuit claiming that they used this painting in a “transformative” manner by showing it on a computer screen and not directly. However, the judge rejected this motion from HBO saying that “[HBO is] not entitled to a finding that their use of the [painting] is transformative solely because they display the Work in an Internet browser,”