Selfie that could cost $1600 a day

A SELFIE that a passenger took with a snoozing politician on-board a plane will cost him 1000 euros ($1589) per day if he doesn’t remove it from the internet, a court has ruled.

French dancer Brahim Zaibat, a former lover of Madonna, took a picture of far-right National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, 87, with his head back and mouth open as he napped on a flight between Paris and the southern city of Nice, with Zaibat grinning behind him.

“Knock them out tomorrow by going out to vote. To preserve our brotherly France!!!” Zaibat tweeted with the photo.

But Le Pen wasn’t having any of it and sued Zaibat for invasion of privacy and copyright, seeking 50,000 euros ($56,000) in damages and the withdrawal of the picture which was taken two years previously.

A Paris court found that while the photo “was of a humorous nature and was used to send a political message” it did violate Le Pen’s exclusive right to his image, according to French law.

But the court said the snap was “neither degrading nor malicious”.

Zaibat was fined one euro by a Paris court Wednesday for sneaking the selfie with Le Pen and an accompanying order to pay Le Pen 3,000 euros in legal fees.

Zaibat was also ordered to take down the offending picture, which was tweeted more than 12,000 times when posted on December 12, ahead of regional elections in France.

He was officially given 48 hours to remove the photo or be fined 1000 euros for every day it remains online. As of 3.30pm on February 11 the tweet was still up on Zaibat’s Twitter account.

Zaibat’s lawyer Vincent Toledano said he would appeal the decision. Le Pen was booted out of the National Front party by his daughter and party leader Marine Le Pen over his refusal to temper his xenophobic and anti-Semitic outbursts.

The younger Le Pen has worked hard to clean up the image of the far-right party, which drew a record number of votes in the December election but failed to win a single region.