Adam Levine has been sued over an Instagram post that sought donations for victims of Hurricane Dorian in 2019, with a copyright owner alleging the Maroon 5 frontman didn’t get permission to include a video showing the storm’s damage to the Bahamas.
Levine faces the claims in a federal copyright infringement lawsuit filed Monday (July 28) by Global Weather Productions LLC, a video licensing company that’s been on a litigation spree in recent years.
Global Weather Productions alleges it owns footage of Hurricane Dorian’s damage to the Bahamas’ Abacos Islands, which was first published by “professional storm chaser” Michael Brandon Clement on Sept. 3, 2019.
Levine supposedly included this video in his Sept. 6, 2019, Instagram carousel about Hurricane Dorian. Levine’s post showcased the catastrophic damage that the storm wrought on the Bahamas and the Carolinas, and the singer urged his millions of followers to donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
The problem, says Global Weather Productions, is that Levine didn’t buy a license for the Abacos Islands video.
“As a musician and author, defendant has significant experience in copyright matters and is familiar with specific practices including the need to ensure that content used in his posts has been properly licensed,” writes the company. “As a content creator himself, defendant should be particularly sensitive to the unauthorized use of his works.”
Global Weather Productions claims it reached out to Levine about the alleged infringement this past April “in attempt to avoid litigation.” Met with radio silence, the company says it followed up in May, but again heard nothing back.
“Despite plaintiff’s efforts and willingness to address defendant’s infringing activity, defendant failed to respond, and plaintiff was forced to seek judicial intervention for defendant’s infringing activity,” reads the lawsuit.
The video company is seeking damages for Levine’s supposed copyright infringement, which could run as high as $150,000 under the law.
Global Weather Productions has been on a copyright litigation tear the last few years, bringing dozens of lawsuits against publishers of supposedly unlicensed natural disaster videos since 2023.
Targets of the company’s lawsuits have included news broadcasters like Reuters, Univision and NewsNation, as well as individual content creators like model Molly Sims.
Levine’s reps did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday’s lawsuit.
