Branding Firm Made Bogus Copyright Takedown Claims, Printer Says

Wall Art Distributors Inc. filed suit alleging a branding company for musical artists misused the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to block its online sales of celebrity posters by asserting rights it didn’t possess.

Merch Traffic LLC wrongfully issued DCMA takedown notices for 47 images of recording artists it claimed are its clients—including Harry Styles, 50 cent, and Elton John—that Wall Art licensed from the copyright-holding photographers and sold on Walmart Inc.‘s online platform, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Merch “reversed its position” after the print-on-demand company ...