14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is being sued by Suzie Wokabi, CEO of Suzie Beauty Cosmetics, for using some of her photos without authorization in a Windows 8 advertisement that was displayed on billboards.
A report by HumanIPO reveals that the pictures, which were made by a professional photographer, were given to Muthoni Njomba, a makeup artist and entrepreneur, who then submitted them to Microsoft to be used in the ad.
“Muthoni approached me a year ago and asked whether she could use my son and I as models for her artwork. She got a professional photographer who took photos of my hands and my son’s foot,” Wokabi explained, emphasizing that she didn’t know that the photos could be used for a Microsoft ad.
“I was shocked when my husband told me that he had seen the same photo on a Microsoft billboard accompanied by the words ‘Art Deeper with Windows 8.’”
Although one would think that it’s really hard to recognize your hands in a photo you see online, Wokabi says that she wants an order for compensation for general damages and compensation for being used as model because of her “celebrity status, recognisability and reputation.”
Microsoft hasn’t yet issued a statement on this, but we’ve contacted the company and will update the article when and if we receive an answer.