Katy Perry is being Sued for $150,000, for Posting a Picture on Instagram

The Picture

The picture that has caused all the trouble was taken in 2016 during a Halloween party, where the ‘Roar’ singer turned up as Hillary Clinton and her partner was dressed as Bill Clinton. Katy posted the picture on her Instagram and captioned as "❤️BILL & HILL 4EVA❤️,” The post had garnered more than 558,000 likes.

The Plaintiff-Backgrid

Backgrid is the photo agency that issuing the’ Fireworks’ singer as it owns the rights of the picture which was taken in 2016. 

Backgrid was formed by the collaboration of the world’s leading celebrity photo agencies – Xposure, AKM-GSI and FameFlynet USA. BackGrid’s first international office was opened in Sydney. 

They have claimed that this is not the first time Katy has posted pictures to which she doesn’t have the rights. They claim that they have contacted her since 2017 regarding the use of unlicensed photos. The lawsuit was filed it’s on Tuesday, October 29. It states that by posting the picture Katy has violated federal law.

Earlier Litigations

Litigations are not new to Katy Perry. Last month she was ordered by the jury to cough up over $2.78 million for lifting the tune of a Christian rap song. It was found that her No.1 hit the “Dark Horse” was a copy of the song “Joyful Noise.” The co-writers Emanuel Lambert and Chike Ojukwu had sued Perry for more than $20 million, however, they were happy with what they received.

In 2014, Christina Fish, a stagehand sued Katy for a damaged toe. Apparently, Christina was working for Katy Perry during her  'Prismatic World Tour' in 2014. She was asked to move a wall which was part of the set and it rolled on to her foot. The toe was damaged and had to be amputated. 

Other celebrities who have been sued

There are many celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Gigi Hadid who have been sued by photo agencies for huge amounts. They were also sued by members of the paparazzi for posting pictures of themselves on Instagram. Apparently, they were sued because the pictures were not licensed.

Nowadays, the paparazzi have found another way of raking in the money and that is by using the celebrities for posting photos. Ideally one would think that if they are in the picture they can use it freely. However, according to Copyright rules, the rights to the photograph belongs to the photographer and they can license it to anybody who wants to use it.

Khloe Kardashian was the first victim of this type of lawsuit. She was sued for posting a picture of her herself in Miami which was taken by the paparazzi.

We hope our celebrities become more careful and think twice before posting photos on Social media.