Photographer suing Guns ‘N’ Roses for copyright infringement and manager for sexual harassment

nme.com:

Guns ‘N’ Roses and their management for copyright infringement and sexual harassment allegedly perpetrated by the band’s manager Fernando Lebeis.Katarina Benzova filed a lawsuit on Saturday (November 11) which states that she worked on a freelance basis for Guns ‘N’ Roses between 2010 and 2022 across 364 concerts.Guns N’ Roses, Gundam LLC (the band’s business and holding company), Team Brazil and Lebeis are listed as the defendants in the case.The suit claims that the band and their team committed copyright infringement on Benzova’s photos “through the reproduction, public display, distribution, creation of derivative works, and holding out of Benzova’s photographs for licenses and sale to third party publications after termination of any right to do so,” and altered various photographs in order to cover infringement and falsely claim ownership of them.Benzova also alleges in the suit that Lebeis had made unwanted sexual advances towards her on numerous occasions since he began managing Guns ‘N’ Roses in 2016.

The suit claims Lebeis became aggressive and hostile when Benzova repeatedly rejected him, and it even escalated to “name-calling, ridicule, demeaning remarks, humiliation, bullying, and lying.”In addition, Benzova alleges that Lebeis eventually lowered her fee without notifying her, withheld payments from her, moved her to cheaper hotels during travel, demanded she pay out of pocket for travel expenses that Team Brazil promised to cover and refused to credit her for her photos.Furthermore, she claims that her efforts to use written contracts with the band were ignored.