iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, August 20, 2009
News Category: Apple TV

Apple has been sued a second time by photographer Louis Psihoyos over what he claims is misappropriation of his image “1000 TVs” for the Apple TV’s wall-of-videos intro sequence. Psihoyos filed a similar claim against Apple in June of 2007 in Boulder, Colorado; this latest suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan, and is seeking actual damages and other remedies that are “reasonably believed” to exceed $2 million. Apple modified the Apple TV’s opening sequence somewhat with the release of software 2.0, possibly in response to Psihoyos’ claim, as it was less similar to the photographer’s work than the prior introduction movie.

Update: Following the publication of this article, iLounge learned that the suit was not referencing the Apple TV, but instead an early version of the i.TV application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The suit names both Apple and i.TV, asserting that “[w]ithout permission or authorization from the plaintiff, defendants Apple and i.TV have impermissibly used, reproduced, copied, infringed, disseminated or otherwise exploited the plaintiff’s copyrighted image in the i.TV application.” The image no longer appears in the application, and it is unclear how long the application was available with the infringing image.