Rihanna Rips Off Grunge Artist Sandy Kim

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Rihanna caught up (yet again) in plagiarism scandal: this time it’s her video for ‘We Found Love’ with blatant parallels to the work of Sandy Kim

Rihanna’s video for her hit single ‘We Found Love’ has been accused of plagiarising the heroin-chic work of artist-photographer Sandy Kim. The whistle-blower is FADER contributor Bryan Derballa, who describes how, ‘when a friend played me Rihanna’s video for that infectious song “We Found Love”, I thought it looked really familiar. It’s Sandy Kim’s blog! There are so many thematic and aesthetic similarities’.

Sandy Kim is currently the favourite artist of photographer Ryan McGinley – one of the youngest artists to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and named Photographer of 2003 by American Photo Magazine: ‘Sandy is a confessional photographer with a thing for body fluids. ... Sometimes it's hardcore ... and sometimes it's pure beauty. She often photographs cute long-haired nude or near-nude boys lying on dirty couches in classical repose. ... She really knows how to use natural light, like early morning light, or sunset light in an apartment. She pays attention to it and that's always the sign of a good photographer, knowing when and how to use that light.’

This is not the first time that one of Rihanna’s videos has been accused of ripping off other artists. Her music video for her hit single S&M sported imagery blatantly lifted from the work of famed photographer David LaChapelle. Accusations of plagiarism came from all sides, with one scene depicting Rihanna ‘walking’ a man on a leash and on all fours corresponding to LaChapelle 2002 image for Vogue, Aristocrats. Indeed, the similarities were so great that fans of the photographer were initially concluded that LaChapelle had in fact directed the video.

But, given that she was subsequently sued by two separate photographers claiming she or co-director Melina Matsoukas ripped off their imagery, there is surely some ambiguity as to any claim to originality within the glitzy sphere of show biz...

Rihanna caught plagiarising again

 when will she learn to stop plagiarising other people's works?

Something about Rihanna's "You Da One" video looks familiar and one Norwegian photographer may agree.


In the video, released last week, Rihanna can be spotted gyrating around on the floor as the stripes and dot-shaped shadows dance on her flesh-colored body suit. As the Fashionista blog pointed out, the gorgeous creative direction in the video would seem nearly identical to the work of renowned fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø.

Back in 2008 Sundsbø created these manipulated light and shadow skin creations in an editorial for Numero titled "Points a la Ligne." In the spread, model Edita Vilkeviciute poses nude with the light projections slithering on her body and rocking a remarkably similar bowl cut wig to the singer. Rihanna was certainly "inspired" by the editorial, but is her inspiration a bit too direct?

This is the third time the songstress has apparently cribbed from a famous photographer. Her titillating clip for "S&M" drew the ire of David LaChapelle, who received an "undisclosed sum" from the singer earlier this year for similarities in the video to his work. She also faced another lawsuit from photog Philipp Paulus over a scene in the video.

Neither Rihanna or Sundsbø have commented on the new allegations. It should be noted that the director behind "You Da One," Melina Matsoukas, also shot the "S&M" video, as well as the epic clip for Rihanna's "We Found Love."


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admitted plagiarists Coldplay copied a Vietnamese singer

“We’re definitely good, but I don’t think you can say we’re that original,” he notes. “I regard us as being incredibly good plagiarists.”  Coldplay front man Chris Martin in a rolling stone magazine interview



This is the second time this year this plagiarising band is caught and accused of copying other people's songs  earlier this year he copied the rythm which is first used by Peter Allen in his song "I go to rio" this rythm which was covered by several artists including the secados in their song "el ritmo de la noche" link


This month the admitted plagiarists once again copied a Vietnamese Singer


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Vietnamese Musician Likely to Sue Coldplay for Plagiarism

Posted by Rain 4 days ago · 2 Comments
Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)

Article from: Tuoi Tre

Vietnamese pop singer Tran Thu Ha or Ha Tran, currently living in the U.S., is working with her lawyer to explore the possibility of a plagiarism lawsuit against Rihanna and Coldplay.

Vietnamese pop singer Ha Tran and musician Thanh Phuong pictured at a music event in Vietnam in September, 2011. (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

The possible lawsuit came after their “Princess of China” song in the “Mylo Xyloto” album released on October 17 has been found to bear striking resemblance to her 2008 “Ra ngo tung kinh.”

Ha told Tien Phong newspaper: “If I sue them for plagiarism, it is like an ant fighting against an elephant. However, from my lawyer’s opinion, even if the resemblance is just a coincidence, we still have a case in court if analyses turn up considerable similarity between the two songs.”

According to Ha, the two songs have a similar mood, beats, and musical arrangement in the introduction piece.

Ha said it’s unbelievable that Coldplay have listened to her song. She ventured a hypothesis that the English band could have come across and listened to it on the Internet without really knowing who wrote it.

“I need to be careful if I want to sue someone. They will accuse me of seeking profit if I couldn’t give enough evidence,” she said.

There have also been comments on the resemblance between the vocal background style in her song “Ra ngo tung kinh” and that of African indigenous people’s music.

However, Ha Tran explained that she came up with the vocal style to use in the background music of the song “Ra ngo tung kinh,” which was arranged by local musician Thanh Phuong.

American music website ATRL was the first one to mention the resemblance.

One member shared a post called “Coldplay & Rihanna plagiarizing Vietnam music?” with the two music clips to compare, which has attracted six pages of comments.

Disputable copyright is not new to Coldplay, as the English band was sued by singer Joe Satriani for using a part of his “If I could fly” song for their Grammy-winning “Viva La Vida” in 2009.

In September the same year, they went to court in Los Angeles in the US again when their new music video “Strawberry Swing” was claimed to be a copy of the MV “Something Else” released one year earlier by singer Andy J. Gallagher.





Ha Tran's original version released in 2008

Coldplay's plagiarized version

Racist, Colourist Vogue Magazine turned Rihanna white

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The blonde wig may be throwing us off, but Rihanna is on the cover of British Vogue’s November 2011 issue and she’s looking much lighter.
It could be the actual lighting on set, it could be that we’ve gotten used to her wearing a fire engine-red wig, or it could be that someone forget to tell Vogue’s retoucher that Rihanna is in fact black.
What do think? Chime in the comments and help us figure it out.
Skin lightening in beauty magazines is an all too common practice. At this point it’s just a question of how severely a person will be lightened. ELLE did it to the most beautiful woman in the world most recently, they’ve transformed Gabourey Sidibe into a much lighter cover girl. L’Oreal whitewashed Beyonce, too.
There’s a thriving skin lightening beauty industry too and that one can be dangerous. In 2003, Dr. S. Allen Counter, a professor of neurophysiology and neurology at Harvard Medical School questioned why it was mostly women who were dealing with increased rates of mercury poisoning in places like Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and even in the Southwestern United States

In every case, clinical questioning revealed that the women had used skin-whitening creams — many for years. In other words, these women had tried so desperately to whiten their skin color that they had poisoned their bodies by applying mercury-based “beauty creams.”
Ninety percent of the women entering border clinics in Arizona with mercury poisoning were Mexican-American, and they like their Mexican counterparts had been using skin-whitening creams such as “Crema de Belleza-Manning,” which is manufactured in Mexico. These skin-whitening creams contain mercurous chloride, which is readily absorbed through the skin. Saudi, African, and Asian women were also using these skin-bleaching chemicals in a tragic attempt to change their appearance to that of white women.

David LaChapelle Wins Pre-Trial Ruling Against Rihanna

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A federal court has refused to dismiss David LaChapelle's copyright claim against pop singer Rihanna over a music video with scenes allegedly copied from several of LaChapelle's images. The ruling, by the US District Court in New York City, means the photographer's claim can now go to trial.

LaChapelle filed suit in February, alleging that some scenes from the video for Rihanna's hit single called "S&M" are rip-offs of sadomasochistic images he has created and published over the years. According to LaChapelle's claim, Rihanna asked various directors to create a "LaChapelle-esque video" for "S&M," and provided a story board for the video actually included prints of some of LaChapelle's photographs.

In its pre-trial ruling, the court ruled that LaChapelle made a plausible claim for infringement because the video appeared to copy protectable elements of his images, according to the judge. (Protectable elements exclude the idea and subject matter, but include factors that contribute to the originality or expression of the subject: sets, wardrobe, lighting, camera angle, mood, etc.)

For instance, the court pointed out that the video's "Pink Room Scene" and LaChapelle's "Striped Face" photograph both feature women dominating men in a domestic scene. That subject is not protectable, the court noted, because "the subjects flow naturally from the chosen idea" of sadomasochism.

But the particular way that Rihanna's video portrayed the scenes--including the set, wardrobe, "generally frantic mood" and lighting--was "substantially similar" to LaChapelle images, even if all the details were not identical, the court concluded.

"Both works share the frantic and surreal mood of women dominating men in a hypersaturated, claustrophobic domestic space. Thus, I find that an ordinary observer may well overlook any differences and regard the aesthetic appeal of “Striped Face” and the “Pink Room Scene” as the same," Judge Shira A. Scheindlin wrote in her decision.

She reached the same conclusion after comparing other video scenes to particular images by LaChapelle.

The judge dismissed Rihanna's fair use defense out of hand, saying it was so misguided and "unavailing" that the pop singer failed to raise a fair use defense at all.

But Judge Scheindlin also dismissed other claims made by LaChapelle, including trade dress violation and unfair competition claims. Those claims were based on LaChapelle's contention that audiences would confuse Rihanna's S&M video with his work. But the court said LaChapelle was merely re-stating his copyright claims, without providing enough evidence to sustain his additional claims.

With the copyright claims cleared for trial, the judge scheduled a pre-trial conference for August 10.

Now it is up to Rihanna to decide whether it is worth the risk and expense to defend against the copyright claims in front of a jury--or try to settle with LaChapelle out of court.