New Delhi: People of India, the storytelling platform sued by Humans of Bombay (HoB) for copyright infringement, has denied the allegations, arguing that there cannot be a copyright on subjects. The platform is now preparing to defend itself in court.
“We have engaged a legal firm and will be fighting this in the court. The reality is very simple — we interview people, we share their stories. They share their pictures with us and that is what we put on our platform. It’s very simple and straightforward,” a spokesperson for the platform who didn’t want to be named told ThePrint.
Previously, Abhishek Malhotra, an advocate representing Humans of Bombay, had explained that the case was about “copying the story, the photographs and the videos created by Humans of Bombay and the hard work of the team at HoB.” HoB is also a storytelling platform, and was founded by Karishma Mehta in 2014.
The lawsuit has drawn severe flak from several quarters, including Humans of New York (HONY), a similar photoblog founded by Brandon Stanton in 2010.
Earlier, even as the controversy raged on, People of India remained conspicuously silent and no lawyer turned up during the online hearing on 18 September.
The photoblog is yet to release an official statement on the legal battle. But even as HoB claimed the lawsuit is for breach of copyright and plagiarism and “not about storytelling”, People of India said their defence will be on two overarching contentions — “the business model or storytelling itself”.
“Even in the high court order (admitting the petition), you can see the business model is part of the statement. The second thing is on selected content pieces that in total form 0.1 percent of our content and there has been no copyright infringement on both aspects,” the spokesperson said.
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‘Art made for profit is a product’
People of India was founded by Drishti Saxena in 2019. In a period of four years, the storytelling entity has garnered 1.5 million Instagram followers and more than 6 lakh YouTube subscribers.
Defending the company, its spokesperson drew parallels with the media ecosystem where news channels often approach the same subjects.
“There cannot be copyright on the subject themselves. (It cannot be) I’ve covered this person’s story and now no other platform in India can cover the person’s story,” he said.
The spokesperson added that the outpouring on social media was understandable as people were questioning how it was possible to “copyright storytelling itself when someone had not started it”.
The lawsuit has sparked a heated debate about ownership of storytelling, its monetisation by Humans of Bombay, and accusations of a toxic work culture at the company’s office.
The loudest criticism has come from HONY’s Brandon Stanton. After he initially criticised the Humans of Bombay on X for “appropriating” his work and monetising far past anything he would “feel comfortable doing on HONY”, he released a statement on Instagram Tuesday.
Without naming anyone and steering clear of the “intricacies of copyright law”, Stanton shared his thoughts on art and money making.
“Beautiful art can make money, there’s nothing wrong with that. But when art begins with a profit motive, it ceases to become art. And it becomes a product,” he said in his message.
Significantly, an X user claimed earlier this month that Humans of Bombay charged as high as Rs 3-4 lakh for a paid feature story.
“I welcome anyone who is using the ‘Humans of’ concept to express something true and beautiful about their community. I do not identify with anyone who is using it for the sake of creating a certain lifestyle for themselves,” Brandon said in his post Tuesday.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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