Jewish group threatened with lawsuit over Rep. Omar image

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. (Wikimedia Commons)

A photograph of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from Facebook that was used in an ad condemning the Muslim congresswoman for her anti-Semitic remarks is the subject of a copyright infringement claim.

An attorney for Jason Grow of Jason M. Grow Photography in Boston is demanding that Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and his World Values Network pay $150,000 in damages for unapproved use of an Omar image on two occasions, Fox News reported.

An April 24 letter obtained by Fox News from attorney Andrew D. Epstein cited use of Omar's image in an ad in the Washington Post and in a Go Fund Me appeal.

"In lieu of actual damages and profit damages, my client can elect to recover Statutory Damages under 504 (c) of the Copyright Act in a sum up to $150,000," the attorney wrote.

Grow's biography states he "specializes in photographing exceptionally accomplished, busy people with real-time constraints in real environments."

Boteach argues the photo was taken publicly from Facebook.

His ad responded to tweets by Omar that effectively convey the old anti-Semitic trope that "Jews control the world with their money."

Fellow Muslim Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has criticized the ad as "fear-mongering" and "false and that only serves to incite violence toward a Black Muslim woman."

Boteach: Effort to silence critics

The GoFundMe was created March 22, and the ad ran March 24.

Grow's lawyer argued that the fact that the photograph was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office effective March 25 has no legal bearing.

Epstein told Fox News in an interview that the Copyright Act "gives photographers three months after the first publication of a photograph to register their copyrights and recover statutory damages of up to $150,000, plus attorney’s fees and other costs."

He reasoned that if the law were otherwise, "photographers and reporters would have to register their works before they could publish them in order to get the full protection of copyright."

"This would be a time-consuming exercise and would delay time-sensitive materials from being disseminated to the public," Epstein said.

Boteach said in a statement, however, he sees it as another attempt to silence Omar's critics.

"We wish to make it clear we will not be silenced about Ilhan Omar and her personal war against the Jewish people," he said.

"Those threatening legal action for the proper use of this photo wants to stifle the First Amendment rights or a Jewish organization that battles anti-Semitism."