Brian May took to Instagram today (November 13) to express his disgust at a photographer who reported one of his photos for copyright violation.
The Queen guitarist posted a screenshot of the notification he received, after a user reported one of his photos when he forgot to credit them – which resulted in his account being suspended. And he wasn’t afraid to name and shame.
“Well this is what I woke up to,” he wrote.
“How RUDE! I’m usually very careful to credit anyone whose photos I post – but in this case, at the end of the day, I must have forgotten.
“So, rather than write to me and say, ‘Dear Brian – you seem to have forgotten to credit me on this picture’, this person – Barbara Kremer is her name – reported me to Instagram and they not only took the picture down but disabled my whole account until I’d dealt with the issue – which took about 45 minutes of my time that I could not afford because the link refused to work on my phone.
“What an incredibly unfriendly act from you, Barbara!”
He went on to accuse Barbara of exploiting his image and making money off him, saying he too feels “violated”.
May then made it very clear that Barbara was not welcome at any future gigs: “If I ever discover that you are at one of our concerts in future, look out, because, logically, I will be tempted to have you thrown out.”
Fans flocked to support him, with one user commenting: “Please don’t let one bad apple spoil the whole bunch, as Michael Jackson used to sing.”
However, another user jumped in to suggest that naming her was unfair: “Yes, poor judgement from her side. But I think you should know better than to hang and shame a regular woman, way below you in society, possibly exposing her for harassment or even death threats.”
This isn’t the first time that May has taken to the internet to voice a complaint. Back in June he wrote a blog post slamming British Airways’ seating arrangements in their first class cabins. He also recently called Theresa May an “awful woman” on his social media channels, regarding her support for fox hunting.
However, it’s not all negativity – the guitarist met Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the Lush Summit in September and praised him on his Instagram, calling him “very impressive”.
Meanwhile, last month a new image of Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury was released, from the upcoming biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Footage also emerged of Malek filming the iconic Live Aid scene, with Brian May sharing an image of the Live Aid stage being recreated.