My gut reaction is to break this down into the real legal tools people actually use, because it’s surprisingly practical once you strip away the headlines. First, copyright: the person who took the photo usually owns the copyright unless it was a work-for-hire. That means if someone reposts, sells, or uses a Noah Cyrus photo without permission, the copyright owner can send a DMCA
takedown to platforms, demand removal, and — if the owner has registered the work with the copyright office — sue for infringement, seeking statutory damages and attorney fees. I always tell friends to check whether the image is registered: statutory damages and easy-to-prove remedies often hinge on that registration timing.
Second, there’s the right of publicity and privacy torts. Even if a photographer owns the copyright, using an image of Noah for commercial endorsement or advertising without a model release can trigger right-of-publicity claims in many states. Privacy torts like public
Disclosure of private facts or false light can apply when intimate or private images are shared without consent. If the image is intimate and distributed nonconsensually, many jurisdictions have criminal or civil remedies too — think revenge-porn statutes and harassment laws. I keep a mental list of options: tell the platform, preserve evidence, send a take-down notice, and get legal counsel when it's serious.
Finally, a few modern wrinkles: deepfakes and synthetic images can be actionable under state laws, right of publicity, or even anti-impersonation statutes, depending on where you are. Internationally, the landscape shifts — EU privacy rules and national personality rights can be
stronger than in some US states, while some US states have particularly robust publicity laws. My practical take is always: document, act quickly, and use platform DMCA or privacy-reporting tools first; if that fails, a cease-and-desist and then litigation for infringement or publicity violations are the next steps. Personally, I find it reassuring that there are multiple overlapping protections — it’s not just one-size-fits-all — but the patchwork means outcomes vary by place and situation.