When Katy Perry dressed up as Hillary Clinton in 2016 for Halloween, she thought the outfit was picture picture. A paparazzi agency who snapped a shot of her in the costume, though, is crying foul and claiming she's guilty of copyright infringement.
On Tuesday, Backgrid, a top paparazzi agency, filed a lawsuit against the singer, claiming she violated federal law by posting one of its pictures to her Instagram. The agency alleged that Katy never paid a licensing fee to use the 2016 Halloween picture, and it now suing her for $150,000 for using it. Backgrid adds that it has attempted to settle the dispute several times since 2017, but has been unsuccessful.
The three-year-old photo in question is still up on Katy's social media.
"BILL & HILL 4EVA ," she captioned the snap that depicts her as Hillary. It also features a friend dressed as Bill Clinton and her now-fiance Orlando Bloom dressed as a caricature of Donald Trump.
Katy is far from the only celebrity to be sued by a photo agency for allegedly using its photos. Gigi Hadid was sued last year for posting a paparazzi picture to Instagram. She later blasted he agency.
"Yesterday I heard from my management that I am being 'legally pursued' for my last (now deleted) Instagram post," she wrote in a lengthy Instagram post on Oct. 18, 2018. "I posed/smiled for the photo because I understand that is part of my job, this was an appropriate situation for 'the press' to attend and also that this is how paparazzi make a living."
"The photo is by a Paparazzi & is of me on the street outside an event last week," she said. "These people make money off us everyday, LEGALLY stalking us day in and day out."
Gigi went on to say that photographers expose her, her friends and family to dangerous situations every day.