Why a small SC church is being sued for a photo on its website
A small South Carolina church is being sued by a photographer who accuses the church of using his photo without permission.
New Hampshire-based photographer Erin Paul Donovan filed the lawsuit in federal court against Wightman United Methodist Church of Prosperity, alleging his photo appeared on the church’s website without his approval.
Donovan’s lawsuit includes a screen grab of Wightman UMC’s website showing a mountainscape photo he shot of New Hampshire’s White Mountains used as the thumbnail for a video of a June 2021 sermon at the Prosperity church.
“Donovan alleges that Defendant copied his copyrighted Work from the internet in order to advertise, market and promote its business activities,” the lawsuit alleges. “Donovan notified WUMC of the allegations… on June 21, 2023, and July 20, 2023. To date, the parties have failed to resolve this matter.”
The photographer also accuses the church of removing his copyright notice, name and watermarks from the photo as it was posted to his website.
He asked a court to impose damages on the church and prevent it from using his photos again.
When a reporter for The State visited the church’s website Wednesday, a stream of the church service from that date was still playable, featuring a sermon about believing in impossible things. But a second video on the page from Facebook Watch said, “This video can’t be embedded because it may contain content owned by someone else.”
Prosperity is a town of little more than 1,000 people in Newberry County. Wightman UMC’s history dates back to 1877, according to the church’s website.
