Outside View: When Is Photo Use Legal on Instagram?

Legally speaking, there is definitely such a thing as bad publicity. Instagram, the social media platform of choice for designers, models, photographers, makeup artists, influencers and other fashion and beauty figures — not to mention actors and musicians — is a hub of self-promotion, with users posting an estimated 4.2 billion “likes” to the site per day. But as brands and celebrities aggressively ratchet up their social media presences, Insta-lawsuits over copyright and the right of publicity have proliferated. In 2017, U.K.-based Xposure Photos Ltd. filed a complaint against Khloé Kardashian, who had removed a copyright credit and then shared with her Instagram followers a paparazzi shot of herself going to a Miami restaurant. In October, Eva’s Photography Inc., a Queens, N.Y.-based photography company, filed a copyright complaint against Fenty Corp., the fashion corporation started by Rihanna, for the unauthorized use of a picture of model Gigi Hadid in Fenty attire. The action was dismissed in early December after the parties reached a private settlement agreement. That same month, paparazzo Robert O’Neil filed a lawsuit against model Emily Ratajkowski for her use on Instagram of a picture he had copyrighted. The Liebowitz Law Firm representing O’Neil had also represented Eva’s Photography and penned

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