Bella Hadid has settled a lawsuit with Chosen LLC, over a picture Hadid posted to her Instagram account back in 2020. The dispute arose when Hadid shared a photograph of herself – wearing glasses and a pink coat outside of an apartment- on her Instagram stories. The image had been taken by a professional photographer, employed by Chosen LLC, who is the copyright owner . Chosen LLC thus filed a lawsuit against Hadid, claiming that her sharing of the photograph on Instagram, constituted an unauthorised reproduction and distribution of the photograph.

According to the lawsuit, the professional photographer had spent significant time and money in building their portfolio and claimed that in posting the copyrighted image, Hadid- who has almost 60 million followers on Instagram and who earns in excess of $20,000 for a single sponsored post – had “received a financial benefit directly” and prevented the rightful owner from making a profit.

Although the Instagram story disappeared within 24 hours, a screen shot had been taken, to use as evidence that Hadid had breached copyright law.

It’s not the first time Bella Hadid has found herself in trouble over posting pictures of herself to social media without first licensing the image from the copyright owner. Back in 2020, photographer Timur Mishiev filed a lawsuit against her when she posted a picture of herself wearing a houndstooth newsboy cap. Mishiev, who had snapped the image, claimed that Hadid had no right to post the picture as she had not received permission from him to do so. As with Chosen LLC, the case also settled out of court.

Both lawsuits serve as reminders that just because you are the subject of a photograph, does not mean you have any intellectual property rights in it, and it does not mean you are free to post it without the copyright owner’s permission.