As you may have seen, Lady Gaga temporarily sent social media haywire last Wednesday when her new single leaked online.
'Stupid Love' sent her Little Monsters (i.e. fans) into meltdown mode despite obviously not being intended for their consumption just yet.
The pop star responded with a simple tweet that voiced her displeasure. She tweeted an image of a person wearing a balaclava and listening to music from image library Shutterstock.
can y’all stop pic.twitter.com/1jvZLdY6jV
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) January 23, 2020
The tweet was liked over 360,000 times. However, the irony of Gaga using a 'pirated' or unlicensed photo to get her point across was not lost on everyone. Especially not Shutterstock, who pointed out her hypocrisy:
.@ladygaga We hear you! We like artists to be paid for their work too. Here's a link to the photographer's work where you can license these quality images: https://t.co/F37wsUBre8 and https://t.co/lljeK1HgkB 😉
— Shutterstock (@Shutterstock) January 23, 2020
Unsurprisingly, Gaga's maniacal fanbase defended her. Some claimed that Shutterstock should be thanking her for the 'free advertisement' and pointing out that the watermark was not removed. However, that still doesn't mean that the photographer was paid for their work.
Others didn't seem to grasp the definition of 'royalty free' and took this to mean that the photo was free to use - which it is not.
Either way, Gaga comes out of this looking a tad foolish.
