Another day, another celebrity getting sued for posting pictures of themselves. 

Supermodel Bella Hadid is the latest celebrity to be sued by a photographer for posting a picture on Instagram. Hadid posted a picture of herself wearing a houndstooth newsboy cap, which was taken by photographer Timur Mishiev. The caption on the image read: “@zendaya made this hat so I shall wear this hat until I can no longer wear this hat anymore @tommyhilfiger.” Mishiev claims that Hadid had no right to post the picture up and is seeking unspecified damages. 

As is commonly known to many in our industry, the copyright of an image is generally retained by the photographer in question. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be common enough knowledge for many individuals that work in industries associated with ours. 

This seems to be quite a common issue now. Earlier this year, it was reported that Kim Kardashian was being sued by a photographer for similar reasons. 

I wonder if this trend continues if lawmakers step in and make changes to how copyright of images depicting people is handled. It’s not a stretch to imagine that people could claim some kind of ownership of images that include themselves. 

Lead image by Wikipedia user Georges Biard, used under Creative Commons.