British alternative metal stars Sleep Token have come under fire for allegedly using an unlicensed live photograph for their official merchandise without the consent of the original photographer. Laura Ioana V came forward with that accusation on Instagram yesterday (December 19th,) sharing the below post.
In it she claimed that a photo she took of the band’s lead singer Vessel during Sleep Token‘s June 15th, 2023 set at the ‘Copenhell‘ festival in Copenhagen, Denmark wound up being altered and appearing on commemorative merch offered during the band’s November 10th, 2024 show in Frankfurt, Germany. Her post read as follows:
“This year I found out the photo I took in 2023 at @copenhell festival (on an editorial assignement for a magazine) was used for merch in 2024, without my permission. I have not signed any contract granting anyone the licensing rights to these photos.
I know a lot of you loved these photos and I am very grateful for the support, but now I need some help sharing this so I can get to management. I have sent emails myself and sent a lot of dms on socials as well but I haven’t been succesful in establishing a communication line with the band directly.
I have only been in contact with one person who was involved with the coin and I have been called agressive for saying the settlement they offered was unfair and that it’s an unacceptable situation, so hoping to get to the band management directly.
As a small creator it is a bit disheartening when you do something with passion and it gets stolen for profit and dismissed like this. Also, on top of that, it seems to not be an isolated case.
Also, considering the amounts of copyright issues this band had with small creators (fanart, tattoo artists etc) it is probably worth creating some awareness on the irony of all of this.
Please share and help out”
She has since edited the post to note that the band’s management, Future History Management, have gotten in touch regarding the matter. She stated of that development, “Management finally got in contact so let’s see what solution they will have to this.”
This situation mirrors a similar incident that another photographer ran into with Sleep Token, however his matter stemmed from a production company employed by the band apparently not doing their due diligence. Sleep Token have previously experienced backlash online due to the alleged heavy-handed actions of their third-party copyright management team, Rico Management.
That company has aggressively pursued copyright infringement notices against various artist-related imagery and IP concerns. This past October, one incident involving a tattoo artist offering Sleep Token-inspired art resulted in the tattoo artist’s social media account being disabled.
Disputes over ownership of photos taken of musical artists and their usage in merch can be a particularly thorny issue, as a 2023 lawsuit involving Guns N’ Roses and photographer Katarina Benzova has shown.
[via Blunt Magazine]
