The 32 year old former drug executive, Martin Shkreli who's also been known for sparking an outrage among patients, doctors and politicians by raising the price of an anti-parisitic infection drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent from his former Turing Pharmaceuticals company is now facing new legal charges against him claiming that his $2 million Wu Tang Clan album holds artwork ripped off from a New York Artist.
Jason Koza, 34 year old from Copiague New York, had designed fan art depicting members of the hip-hop group Wu Tang Clan's album "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin". Koza filed a complaint on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court saying that he never wanted his artwork to be used as a packaging for the Wu Tang's album.
Apparently Shkreli had bought the only sole copy of the rap group Wu tang's album for $2 million back in 2015, making the record the most exclusive and expensive album of all time. The infamous Pharma CEO bragged that he had no plan on listening to it, and his intention was to exclude it from the people.
Koza claimed that he never was paid or contracted for the packaging of the album's artwork, and was only expected for his work to be featured on a website, WuDisciples.blogspot.com.
The Graduate of Fashion Institute of Technology also blames Wu-Tang leader Robert "RZA" Diggs for allowing them to be put on the album, and Shkreli for exposing three works portraying "Inspectah Deck", "Ol' Dirty Bastard" and "Raekwon".
The complaint read, "Mr. Koza was happy when his work appeared on the website," adding that, "Mr. Koza never granted a license for his works to be copied or displayed anywhere (else)."
Whether Shkreli was aware of the copyright or not, he is still responsible for the infringement under copyright law.
Paddle8 which auctioned the album along with producer and Wu Tang affiliated Tarik "Cilvaringz" Azzougarh are the other defendants included in the case.
