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The guys from Green Day are getting sued by an artist who is accusing the band of stealing a facial feature he created.
The image in question shows a frightened, fang-toothed face -- which was plastered on the Green Day website in 2009, featured in a music video and displayed at concerts (left).
Artist Dereck Seltzer claims he created the face years ago (right) and even got it copyrighted -- and Green Day never got his permission to use it, so he filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court.
Green Day's lawyer, Don Passman, tells TMZ, "Green Day received Mr. Seltzer's image from a responsible company and was unaware that there could be any copyright or other issues."
Celebrity Justice3/25/2010 7:00 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF
Green Day Accused of Ripping Man's Face Off
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Reader Comments
(Page 1 of 5) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments4.
I like marxists, man!!!!!!!!!!!!! The world should be all red!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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5.
Wow, that's unfortunate. Green Day are good people, so somewhere down the line someone screwed up or made a bad judgement call. This is one group of celebrities that you don't see out and about acting stupid, stoned, or drunk - tending to stay out of the news. I respect that. Hope they can work this all out.
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8.
I know for a fact that this is Dereck Seltzers work! He is a very talented and hard working artist and it is completely wrong for anyone to use an image like this without permission. This is a problem for many artists and Greenday should make it right.
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9.
Can't BELIEVE that, stop trying to pass the BUCK Greenday. You made the "mistake", you need to pay. How would you feel about your copywritten work being STOLEN? Get your lawyers working and pay Mr. Seltzer what he deserves.
A FORMER Fan.
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11.
Artists get screwed over and used all the time. If Green Day feels like they are true artists they will pay what is owed.
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12.
im a fan of both artists, and i hope green day does the right thing and gives credit when its definitely due. what a nightmare to have do go through your work being stolen and not credited!!
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14.
I know Dereck Seltzer personally, he is a member of my family. Not only do I know that this is his work but have also helped him get advice with the case since Green Day is trying to get out of paying him his money. Please support Dereck Seltzer, as he is a very hard working artist who has done some amazing work. GREEN DAY has stolen his artwork and he deserves to be paid.
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15.
Regardless of what the situation might have been, somebody made the decision to use this image in particular, and someone else passed it off as their own. I am sure that whoever chose it probably had no idea whatsoever who Dereck Seltzer is, but whoever passed it off as their work was more than likely familiar with the image. Green Day used this image either way, and Dereck deserves compensation for every concert, video and webpage this image has appeared on. He works much too hard to have his work ripped off by some hack of an artist, and without a doubt deserves a payday.
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