ST. LOUIS • For the second time this week and the third this year, a Missouri artist is suing over the appearance of their work on TV or in the movies.

Marcie Cobbaert's federal copyright suit, filed Friday in federal court here, says that she took photographs for a designer on the "Project Runway" on the Lifetime television network, and that the photos were used on television and on the show's website without her permission.

The suit says that the photos appear to be the property of Lifetime when they are not.

Cobbaert, of St. Charles, took the shots during several St. Louis area shoots for Project Runway contestant Laura Kathleen Planck, who is also named in the suit.

The suit says that Cobbaert is entitled to statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per copyright infringement, or $150,000 per infringement if it was "willful."

Cobbaert lawyer Matthew Diehr said, "Project Runway and its website … are basically one big advertisement, all the way down to the fact that the defendants put MyLifetime.com on my client's photograph. The problem here is that these weren't their photographs to advertise."

Planck declined to comment when reached Friday.

An email to Lifetime was not immediately returned.

Earlier this week, a St. Louis photographer sued the Bravo reality show "Million Dollar Decorators" over the use of a photo on the show, a Missouri tattoo artist sued Warner Bros. Earlier this year over a tattoo in the movie "The Hangover Part II."