Stealing from an artist is nasty. But when an artist steals from another artist, that’s reprehensible. It seems that Rihanna is being accused of stealing from a 19-year-old Parisian fashion photographer, Philipp Paulus.

Check out the story on the Photo District News website.

My favorite quote from Paulus: “Why a worldwide celebrity is not able to afford a creative director…is incomprehensible to me.”

Here’s an interesting story from the Dec. 6, 2007 edition of The New York Times about “artist” Richard Prince’s photographs of other photographs, which smells like theft to me, or at the very least, an absolute lack of any original creativity.

This image, shot by photographer
Jim Krantz, was re-photographed by
“artist” Richard Prince.

I’m dumbfounded by Prince’s blatant theft but I’m astonished that a collector would pay $1.2 million for a copy.

Photographer Jim Krantz erred by selling his copyright to Marlboro, which means he owns no rights to the images and therefore, has no right to file suit. That has to smart.

See the New York Times slide show depicting more of Prince’s expropriated “art”.

Chris Usher filed suit against Corbis for the loss of 12,640 analog images (transparencies and/or negatives) and won a favorable decision two years after the trial’s end.

Monetary damages will be determined in a Dec. 18 hearing.