Jazz singer Esperanza Spalding is next up to be on the chopping block for having to face a lawsuit. After winning two Grammys for her 2012 album Radio Music Society, she is now being sued for an image used on the album’s cover art.

 

The image at hand is the boom box which Esperanza sits upon on the album cover. The boombox is said to be a sculpture made by Ryan Humphrey which was designed by attaching several different pictures to a wooden box. The pictures were taken by photographer Kevin Ryan who says Esperanza was required to give him credit for the photos or to obtain photo licensing permission for the use of the pictures. According to Ryan, she failed to do so therefore causing him to sue to the tune of $500,000.

 

About having to go this route, Ryan says, “I love Esperanza and I love her music and actually, I like the image. But you wish people would have done their due diligence.”

 

If this is true, one has to wonder if it was not just easier to give the photographer credit or maybe even cheaper to acquire the photo licensing permission. Things that make you go hmmmmm. We’ll see how this turns out!