Model sues after her likeness is in ad with headline: "I am HIV positive"

A Brooklyn resident has filed suit against the giant stock-photo company after she found that she had become the poster child of HIV, quite literally.

Avril Nolan, 25, has filed a $450,000 lawsuit against Getty Images in Manhattan Supreme Court, the suit alleges that Getty are improperly allowing her image to be used in these advertisements.

The ads sender is the state Division of Human Rights, who bought the image from Getty.

Avril Nolan says she posed for the photograph taken by Jena Cumbo years ago but that Jena has "had no written release or authorization to use or sell the image". Why she hasn't sued the photographer is probably spelled "money".

NYPost has more details, including irrelevant ones like Nolan was not in a committed relationship at the time of these ads appearing, so that we can conclude they may have ruined her dating potential, which also spells money of she wins this case. Getty seem to have messed up somewhere, if they have actually sold the image for more than it was released for as the photographer says she never gave Getty a release either, and that the image was originally used for a Magazine tutorial. Interesting. No releases signed, editorial use only, and suddenly it's sold for an ad. This does indeed spell money.

“Feeling humiliated and embarrassed, [Nolan] was forced to confess to her bosses that her image had been used in an advertisement for HIV services, implying that she was infected with HIV, in a newspaper often used by her own clients for advertising and that is distributed to tens of thousands of New Yorkers every day.”
The suit maintains Getty “never requested proof that [Nolan] had executed a legally enforceable and binding written model release.”
Cumbo described herself as an acquaintance of Nolan.
“I have been nothing but apologetic about how this happened,” Cumbo told The Post. “I never intended for her picture to be used in this way.”
Cumbo said that she never gave Getty a release and that the image was originally used for a magazine editorial.

Adgrunt Fairuse suggested on twitter, the possibility that the Flickr Gettyimages default upload may have been a way that the photographers work ended up at Getty, simply via Flickr.

Avril Nolan is a PR professional who graduated from the Dublin City University and has worked in Dublin, London and now New York city. She's currently working at a full-service, beauty, fashion and lifestyle public relations firm as senior account coordinator.