Watch Out, Your Food Porn Instagrams Could Be Sold for Thousands Without Your Permission

It's legal if the image is slightly tweaked.

You might want to think twice the next time you Instagram that food porn shot. As part of the recent Frieze Art Fair in New York City, artist Richard Prince stirred up controversy by printing giant screenshots of other people's Instagram photos "without warning or permission," writes the Washington Post. The collection is made up of pictures of women that people posted to Instagram. Prince then enlarged the images, none of which he actually took, and then sold every piece for $90,000.

So how is this legal? Prince did not commit copyright infringement because his works are technically "transformative." He made slight adjustments to the images by removing captions and adding odd comments to each photo. This could mean that restaurants or other people could steal that burger image you spent 25 minutes finding the right filter for, as long as they tweak it slightly.

The news is worrying considering that Instagram is a heavily used app, so much so that Chili's is now crafting its menus so that its dishes are more appealing on the social media platform. Maybe attending a dinner where all the plates are designed to be Instagrammed isn't worth it after all?

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