As Outrageous As it Sounds, These Celebrities Were Sued for Posting Photos of Themselves!

Being an A-lister may mean a lot of things but it doesn’t exempt you from following the law. In fact, celebrities are lawsuit magnets as so many people are looking for ways to juice money out of them.

One of the common cases we hear about in the tabloids is copyright infringement where celebrities are often sued by paparazzi for using their own photos. Ironically, their faces being in the picture doesn’t give them the right to post it on social media without consent from the owner (read: photographer).

The paparazzi’s crackdown on such photos has been serious as evidenced by the many celebrities at the receiving end of a lawsuit. As per Mandour & Associates’ Joseph Mandour, the law says that whoever owns the photo holds the copyright to it. Even some of the most prominent personalities have gotten in trouble for posting photos of themselves, thereby costing them millions.

Jennifer Lopez

The latest to be slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit is Jennifer Lopez, after a photo she shared via an Instagram Story two years ago. It might have been a long time ago, but photo agencies are always on alert when it comes to such issues.

Splash News and Picture Agency made two claims asking for $300,000 each. The photo in question was of the singer and her fiancé Alex Rodriguez, which begs the question: why are paparazzi allowed to take photos of the stars if the stars aren’t allowed to use them?

Ariana Grande

The former Nickelodeon child star is known for her strict, and what some describe as, unreasonable demands when it comes to photographers who are only allowed to get the good side of her face without any natural light.

However, the tables turned when she was hit with a $50,000 lawsuit by Robert Barbera after she posted two photos of herself carrying a bag with the word Sweetener on it.

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In the photos, Ariana Grande was seen heading out of a building, clad in an oversized white sweatshirt and her signature thigh-high boots. The images, which she posted in August last year, got 3 million likes before they were taken down.

Khloe Kardashian

When it comes to paparazzi scandals, the list cannot be complete without a Kardashian on it. In 2017, Khloe posted a photo of herself and Kourtney at a restaurant from a year ago. The Good American jeans founder was instantly slapped with a lawsuit by Xposure Photos because it had given the license to the photo to DailyMail. So, it sought $150,000 in damages and another $25,000 because the reality star removed the copyright data.

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Khloe revealed that she got the photo from a website. She seemingly had taken the issue to heart after revealing that she takes time posting photos of herself, now, and makes sure that she has her images licensed first. The case was eventually settled for an undisclosed amount.

Justin Bieber

The Sorry hitmaker had recently been slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit after posting a photo of himself and close pal Rich Wilkerson without crediting the photographer, Robert Barbera.  Justin Bieber doesn’t seem to like negativity as heh settled the matter for an undisclosed amount just four days after the complaint was filed.

Emily Ratajkowski

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Model Emily Ratajkowski was sued for a whopping $150,000 after she posted her own picture, taken by Photographer Robert O’Neil, on her Instagram Story. In the image, the 28-year-old was seen holding flowers while out and about in New York City.