Humans of Bombay (HOB), a storytelling page on social media, had recently filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against People of India (POI). The Delhi High Court ruled Wednesday that both HOB and POI will “refrain” from using each other’s copyrighted work such as commissioned images, literary works, original pieces, commissioned videos and manner of representation of stories. Now, Karishma Mehta, founder and CEO of HOB, took to Instagram to address the controversy. “I would like to start by saying something that I’ve said on numerous occasions in the past, over the last decade: that we have been inspired by HONY, and will always be grateful to them for showing us what storytelling can do for a community. Our legal case, however, was not about inspiration, but in fact, about – as the Delhi High Court termed it – “substantial imitation”,” the note said. She said when the plagiarism first came to their notice, they reported it to Meta, and as a result 16 of their posts were taken down. However, they couldn’t resolve the matter amicably with them, she claimed, so they had to adopt the legal route. “The outcome of this case will set a precedent for the creator community, and will hopefully go a long way in safeguarding the original content that creators work so hard to build,” the note said. She said that Humans of Bombay is a business and it is something they have never hidden. “While some may choose to monetise stories through mediums like books and subscription platforms, we have chosen to do it primarily through meaningful campaigns with partner brands,” she wrote, which seems like an apparent dig at Humans of New York founder Brandon Stanton. Mehta claimed to have received a slew of personal attacks, including death and rape threats. “While we did not expect to be vilified to this extent, it will not deter us from continuing to tell important stories that change the narrative, and sometimes, even change lives,” she wrote further. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Humans of Bombay (@officialhumansofbombay) “You guys are really good at storytelling!! Who else can twist the court order and make it sound like HOB has won? As far as I could comprehend the Court directed both platforms to refrain from using each other’s copyrighted work, including commissioned photos, original stories, videos commissioned by themselves, and their manner of expression. However, it also emphasized that there could be no copyright claim over private photos of individuals who sent them to either platform,” a user commented. “The brand name is based on Humans of New York and many of the readers thought that you have the permission to use it from its founder. Love your story but you need to be transparent about it. If you are charging some to put their content on your page, it should be mentioned that it is a PR article rather than a so called “touching” story one happened to find,” said another.
