A man who sued Cardi B claiming she misused his image on the cover of her 2016 debut mixtape, ‘Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1’ has been ordered to pay her legal fees.
Plaintiff Kevin Brophy Jr. claimed in a 2017 lawsuit that the rapper photographed his distinctive back tattoo on someone else’s body and used it without his permission, which ultimately appropriated his likeness in a “misleading, offensive, humiliating and provocative-sexual way.”
Earlier, Cardi B claimed that Brophy’s tattoo was applied without her knowledge to the back of a male model who posed with her for a photo shoot. In his lawsuit, Brophy Jr. claimed that he suffered “suffering and humiliation” because the cover in question allegedly depicted his distinctive tattoos on the back of a faceless man photographed with his head between the musician’s legs.
In October, the jury ruled in favor of Cardi B “on all counts” and found that the publication of the cover did not violate the plaintiff’s rights to publicity or privacy, since it depicted an altered photograph of another man.
After the verdict, Brophy Jr. filed a petition to overturn the verdict, but now the judge has ruled against it, arguing that the filing was too late and unreasonable, Rolling Stone reports. Brophy Jr. was also ordered to pay the rapper’s legal fees.
The judge argued that on the cover, “the model looks non—white with black hair, and Brophy looks white and with a shaved head.” For this reason, the judge ruled that the person on the cover of the mixtape could not be mistaken for Brophy Jr., despite the copied tattoo.
“The jury had enough reasons for their verdict. For example, the jury could reasonably conclude that the tattoo on the model’s back on the cover of the mixtape in question in this lawsuit is not sufficiently identified with Brophy to constitute misappropriation of his image or misrepresentation,” the judge concluded. “Since the face of the model is not visible, identification by appearance is impossible.”
Meanwhile, the rapper recently responded to criticism from a fan who suggested that her net worth is $40 million (£33.2 million), while claiming that managing your finances is no less important when you are rich and famous.
