LOS ANGELES — Playboy Enterprises International, in a suit filed last week at Los Angeles federal court, claims that operators of LeBook.com have poached and reproduced on its website high-res pics of its January edition of Playboy magazine, including its 18-page pictorial of fashion model Kate Moss.
Playboy, seeking unspecified damages for infringement, said that LeBook violated its copyrights in an "ongoing, wanton and willful" fashion only days, if not hours, after Playboy's release of its special 60th Anniversary issue, which featured the English model in a spread that was licensed to Playboy.
LeBook.com says on its website that it operates as a "global network and resource that offers exposure to companies and members of the creative community."
The suit even alleges that LeBook facilitated countless other acts of infringement by third parties who likely shared the contents of Playboy and Moss with social networks.
"Le Book conveniently provides browsers of its infringing content with a series of icons and options just below the photos," the suit said. "These icons and options enable users to blow up the photos into even larger, high-resolution shots, print their own [infringing] copies of the entire spread, and 'share' the infringing content with others via email and social networks such as Facebook."
In the suit, Playboy is seeking to enjoin company reps from promoting and participating in acts of infringement against the company, seizure of the contents at issue and actual and statutory damages, as well as attorneys fees.
Officials at LeBook.com did not immediately return a call for XBIZ comment.
