Rihanna 'S&M' plagiarism claim to go to trial

A plagiarism claim against Rihanna's music video for 'S&M' will go to court next month.

Photographer David LaChapelle made the allegation against the Bajan star's music video back in February and he is now preparing to take her record label to pre-trial on August 10.

LaChapelle has claimed that the promo plagiarises his work several times and the video's makers have stolen his ideas for its lighting, theme, wardrobe, concept and props.

A court has agreed to acknowledge that a certain scene in the video - which sees Rihanna dominating a man in front of pink and white striped walls - is similar to LaChapelle's photo portrait 'Striped Face', reports MTV.

However, the photographer has maintained that he is a fan of Rihanna and that he is not targeting the claims at her.

"I like RiRi," he explained. "This is not personal, it's strictly business. Musicians commonly pay to sample music or use someone's beats and there should be no difference when sampling an artist's visuals."

Rihanna's video for 'S&M' also faces another plagiarism case from Phillip Paulus, who claimed that the clip exploits a series of his shots dating back to August 2010.

Watch the music video for Rihanna's 'S&M' below: