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Harry Styles Up For A Fight? Taunting Taylor Swift, Dissing Kendall Jenner, Violating Copyright Law

By Sandra Hajda
Published on: 21:24 PST, Feb 9, 2016

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Whoah! As if quoting Taylor Swift lyrics and clean versions of Kendrick Lamar lyrics directed at ex Kendall Jenner wasn’t enough, Harry Styles is now pillaging the work of random photographers… and he’s not even giving them credit!

Harry Styles got into a bit of a pickle recently when he posted an Instagram snap and failed to credit the photographer, according to Unreality TV. Fame and power do not, it seems, make one immune to copyright spats over photographs and creative content.

You might have thought any photographer would be happy to have one of his snaps uploaded to an account with as much traffic as Harry Styles’ and that Harry could therefore cherry-pick from Google images as he pleases, blessing the occasional artist with a sudden spike in traffic.

If Harry promos your pic at random, and for free, on the highly-sought-after @Harry_Styles page, one of the biggest Instagram pages in the world, it can be nothing but positive, right?

Not if Harry doesn’t credit the guy. Sugarscape reports that Harry “nicked [the photo] from Google to fit in with his more hipster than a hip replacement Insta aesthetic” and forgot to give credit.

It turns out that Harry was not the original creator of the photo and the man who was commented: “750,000 likes – but I don’t like it. I’m interested to see who is this guy that published my picture and got 750,000 likes, without even mentioning my name.”

The man, whose name is Ezequiel Scagnetti and who is known on Facebook as Brussells Photography, did not appear to know who Harry was! He wrote “I’m interested to see who is this guy that published my picture and got 750,000 likes, without even mentioning my name.”

Cue a flood of abuse from One Direction fans.

Ezequiel Scagnetti has since posted a message blasting some of the crueler Harry-defenders for spreading “hate, unlimited hate, in the honour of #harrystyles.”

Of course, as always, it was only a small cohort of the massive One Direction fan base who sent rude messages. Scagnetti says he received “extremely aggressive, xenophobic, homophobic and racist insults” for simply questioning who Harry was and defending a photographer’s right to receive credit for his/her work.

Harry Styles made a mistake by using my picture, he understood it was wrong and erased the post (most probably following recommendations from legal advisers) but I’m ok with this.

The photographer posted a message encouraging the viler youths to become interested in something outside themselves and the narrow world of One Direction. Scagnetti stated that he does not intend to sue Harry, gave his opinion that Harry Styles seems like a “nice” guy, and even listed the photojournalism activities he is involved in — it seems Scagnetti is documenting the movements of Syrian refugees and following the Irani nuclear deal.

The photographer declared that it was crass and idiotic of people to attack him for simply not knowing who Harry Styles is.

You are so narrow-minded that you think that my centre of interest, at my forties, must be a pop band and a — certainly — nice guy called Harry Styles.

It comes at the end of a controversial few days for Harry Styles on social media. When Harry tweeted Taylor Swift lyrics on his 22nd birthday, people wondered if he was taunting the songstress or perhaps trolling the media, as reported by Sugarscape. Later, when Harry posted the boxing picture and a Kendrick Lamar quote, some fans wondered if Styles was feeling a bit aggressive and looking for a fight.

Harry definitely caused some controversy, though it’s nice to see that he responded to the photographer’s complaint and removed the image promptly.

For his part, Scagnetti made it clear that it was not Harry Styles’ actions but the fan abuse that really rattled him in the end.

If there’s one thing we can count on in the world of One Direction, it’s that fans will defend the boys, sometimes too fiercely.

Many are now speaking out in support of Ezequiel Scagnetti for standing up for himself.

(Photo by Jon Furniss/Invision/AP Images)

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