Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has found himself on the wrong side of a $1.5 million copyright infringement lawsuit. Celebrity photography companies, BackGrid USA, Inc. and Backgrid London Ltd, claim that he used photographs photos of himself and his wife, Bianca Censori, without permission. The images were alegedly posted on his Instagram account and Yeezy website.

According to the lawsuit filed by BackGrid, West benefitted financially with increased traffic to his online platforms. They seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each of the ten images West used, as well as the attorney’s fees and injunctive relief.

West is not the first celebrity to be sued over posting photographs of themselves to Instagram. Back in April, Bella Hadid settled a lawsuit with Chosen LLC over a picture Hadid posted to her own Instagram account. The dispute arose when Hadid shared a photograph of herself – the image had been taken by a professional photographer employed by Chosen LLC. Although the Instagram story disappeared within 24 hours, a screen shot had been taken to use as evidence that Hadid had breached copyright law. 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.

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