Artist Claims ‘Archer’ Swiped Her Paintings

NEW YORK (CN) - An artist claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that the makers of FX's animated spy series "Archer" used three pieces of her work without permission.

Michel Leah Keck sued FX Networks and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment for copyright infringement, claiming that her paintings appear as part of the design of the show's fictional spy headquarters.

"Archer" premiered on FX in 2009, and is currently in its sixth season. The show features a fictional spy agency called International Secret Intelligence Service, or ISIS, and follows the adventures and mishaps of suave agent Sterling Archer.

The office set that prompted the complaint belongs to Archer's domineering mother Malory Archer at the agency's headquarters in New York.

Describing herself as a self-taught, mixed-media artist, Keck says the three paintings - entitled "Sink Or Swim," "The Best Is Yet To Come," and "I Don't Want To Hear It" - are depicted on the office walls.

The lawsuit attaches copies of the registrations of her three works with the U.S. Copyright Office as well as screen shots of Malory Archer's office.

"FX Networks and Fox Home Entertainment operate sophisticated media production and distribution businesses with trained staff and an excellent working knowledge of copyright law principles and rights-clearance practices. Inexplicably, defendants used the works as part of Archer without even seeking the necessary permission to do so," the 17-page federal complaint states.

She seeks $30,000 per infringement or up to $150,000 per infringement if FX is found to have copied her work intentionally.

Keck is represented by Joshua Bressler of Bressler Law.

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