Is this not the worst photo of Rihanna
ever?
No wonder she's suing UK fashion house Topshop for putting
it on a t-shirt without her consent.
The case will be decided under UK law, which we don't care
about, but what if it happened here? It's a very interesting
question, actually.
Contrary to what most celebrities think, nobody owns the rights
to their own face. If someone takes your photo, they own the
copyright. You don't own copyright in your own image, simply
because you didn't create it (hmm, not so sure about the
position post-cosmetic surgery...)
But that's not the whole story. There is case law where
famous people have been able to prevent their image being used to
promote products or services, using the misleading conduct laws in
the Competition and Consumer Act. Basically, if the use of
your image represents that you've endorsed the product or
there's a commercial connection of some sort between you and
the supplier, then you have a case to stop
