The founding father of the favored photoblog Humans of New York has hit out at an Indian model of his idea – Humans of Bombay – because it turns into embroiled in a copyright battle.
Humans of Bombay, which follows the same format to Humans of New York (HONY), has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit towards a rival platform.
Weighing in on the dispute, Humans of New York founder Brandon Stanton slammed Humans of Bombay, accusing it of appropriating his personal work first.
“I’ve stayed quiet on the appropriation of my work because I think @HumansOfBombay shares important stories, even if they’ve monetized far past anything I’d ever feel comfortable doing on HONY.
“But you’ll be able to’t be suing individuals for what I’ve forgiven you for.”
HONY options portraits of New Yorkers alongside quotes or quick tales from their lives.
It grew to become a web-based sensation after it launched in 2010, claiming to offer a “worldwide audience with daily glimpses into the lives of strangers on the streets of New York City”.
The photoblog now boasts a web-based following of over 20 million.
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Humans of Bombay was launched 4 years later in 2014 by founder Karishma Mehta. It has since amassed some 3.2 million followers.
Like Humans of New York it accompanies portraits of “strangers” with quotes and tales with the said purpose of telling “inspirational and relatable stories of individuals from all walks of life”.
‘We tried to handle the difficulty amicably’
In its lawsuit it’s now alleging that People of India (POI) – one other India-based storytelling account – has not solely replicated its type, however has additionally been passing off its materials as their very own.
Responding to Mr Stanton’s accusation, Humans of Bombay mentioned the lawsuit wasn’t only a matter of storytelling.
“We are grateful to HONY & Brandon for starting this storytelling movement. The suit is related to the IP in our posts & not about storytelling at all.
“We tried to handle the difficulty amicably earlier than approaching the court docket, as we consider in defending our group’s onerous work.”
A back and forth between the two on X, formerly known as Twitter, has since ensued, with Mr Stanton accusing Humans of Bombay of monetising his concept.
Claiming he hadn’t profited from a single story told on Humans of New York, he wrote “when artwork begins with a revenue motive, it ceases to change into artwork”.
He pointed people to the @HumansofAdam – a similar concept running in the Netherlands – as an example of a “true artist who had executed lovely issues”.
A ‘cryptic assault on our efforts’
Once once more Humans of Bombay hit again, this time accusing Stanton of “jumping the gun” in issuing a “cryptic assault on our efforts”.
Mr Stanton’s photoblog options tales from over 20 totally different international locations. His portraits are additionally the topic of two bestselling books.
He is understood for utilizing his work to fundraise for a number of the topics he options.
In December 2013, he was named one in every of Time journal’s “30 Under 30 People Changing The World”.
Source: information.sky.com”