British teenage girl sues US company over porn film photo

Last updated at 17:36 13 August 2007


A teenage photographer is suing a US porn film company after it used a photograph of her aged 14 on the cover of one of its DVDs.

Lara Jade Coton, now 18, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, said she was "absolutely horrified" that her self-portrait, which was on the internet, had been used as the DVD cover and face art for the sexually explicit film Body Magic without her permission.

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Enlarge   Lara Jade Coton

Miss Coton is now suing the firm, TVX Films of Texas, after she complained and received an email blaming her for disappointing sales of the DVD, her lawyer Richard Harrison said.

She filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tampa, Florida, which accuses TVX Films and its president Bob Burge of copyright infringement, civil conspiracy, misappropriation of her image, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Miss Coton said: "I was absolutely horrified to see my work and my own picture being used on that kind of movie. It's just appalling."

Mr Harrison, of law firm Allen Dell PA, said when Miss Coton contacted the film company, its president Bob Burge responded by ridiculing her and accusing her of trying to perpetrate some kind of scam.

Mr Harrison said: "Adding insult to injury the company had the audacity to blame Lara Jade for the disappointing sales of its porn movie."

He said TVX Films president Bob Burge wrote in an email: "Actually, removing your image will help improve the sale of the DVD. So far it bombed."

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Lara Jade Coton

Mr Harrison said: "We're asking a jury to award damages, including punitive damages, for the outrageous conduct of Burge and TVX.

"We're also asking the court to stop these pornographers from using the picture and to impound any copies of the movie or other materials on which Lara Jade's picture appears."

He went on: "If it's not a crime to put a 14-year-old child on the cover of a porn video, it sure ought to be."

Mr Harrison said the case showed how easily children could be victimised in the age of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

"This amazing technology allows us all to share our photos with friends and loved ones, but parents must realise that any picture a child puts on the internet is about three mouse clicks away from being stolen by anybody," he said.

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