It seems in the past year, many people have been trying to monetize off of Tupac's image. However, the same people that have been trying to make money off of his image, haven't been giving the credit to the right people. While we've heard about the Jenner sisters getting hit with some lawsuits for that, some major retailers are the target of another one.
TMZ reports that photographer, Chi Modu, is suing Macy's and Urban Outfitters for unauthorized use of his photos of 2Pac. The photographer claims that a merchandising company used his images of Pac to print onto t-shirts without his permission. Afterwards, they sold it to Urban Outfitters and Macy's who sold the t-shirts to the public. The whole lawsuit gets a little bit weird at this point. Apparently, Modu at one time did have an agreement with the merchandising company. However, the agreement expired in July of 2016 and they still continued to print t-shirts with his images on it. The photographer is now looking to receive all the profits they've made off of his images as well as damages.
This lawsuit comes after Kendall Jenner got hit with a second lawsuit for unauthorized use of 2Pac's photos only a few weeks prior. Kendall was sued by another 2pac photographer, Al Pereira. He said that Jenner's had no right to use his images without his consent. She and her sister were also sued in July by Michael Miller, who had also shot iconic images of 2Pac that were later put on the Jenner sisters line of vintage t-shirts.
Aside from people using pictures of 2Pac, a Canadian poet was accused of stealing some of Pac's poetry a few weeks back. Prior to the poet's death, he took some of Pac's work and put it in a 2013 book of published poetry. Pac's work said, "Sometimes when I’m alone. I cry because I’m on my own. The tears I cry are bitter and warm. They flow with life but take no form" and DesRuisseux flipped it into "Sometimes when I’m alone I cry, Because I’m alone. The tears I cry are bitter and burning. They flow with life, they do not need reason."
At this point, people need to stop using his work for their own personal gain.
