Hailey Baldwin, model and daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, is being threatened with legal action by author Melissa Molomo after she posted a lengthy quote of her work to Instagram without attribution. Which, among other things, is just a reminder that some people actually read paragraphs-long Instagram captions.
According to Page Six, after Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber got into some sort of public fight on Instagram, Baldwin (who also dated Bieber) showed her support for Gomez by posting an image of a paragraph to Instagram about respect and flawed humanity and learning from one’s errors.
Image via New York Post
Below the image are comments from Melissa Molomo, claiming those are words she wrote and asking Baldwin to give her credit. Molomo’s Instagram is full of inspirational quotes and paragraphs, and she clearly marks which are her own writing and which come from other sources. Molomo appears to have posted the image of her words in November 2015.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Molomo for comment but hasn’t heard back as of this publishing. Her lawyer wrote in a cease and desist letter to Baldwin, “In copying and using Ms. Molomo’s work without permission, you have taken credit and caused confusion as to whom the original author of this work is.” Molomo is seeking a public apology.
The lesson here: No matter how easy it is to download an image and share it with your followers, you shouldn’t be sharing original work without attribution—which is something many people do.