What is the complete Humans of Bombay v. People of India controversy?

The “Humans of Bombay” a storytelling platform based in Mumbai has witnessed massive criticism, all due to a lawsuit that the platform filed against “People of India”. The lawsuit alleged that the latter violated the former’s copyright. Here is the complete story explained to you.

This is how the matter started

The “Humans of Bombay” filed a suit against the “People of India” in the Delhi High Court. The lawsuit sought damage along with an injunction to safeguard People of India from making use of the content of “Human of Bombay.”

The Delhi High Court issued a notice on September 18 to the “People of India”. The notice talked about the allegations.

This is when Brandon Stanton, the founder of “Humans of New York” comes into the scene. Brandon Stanton criticized the “Humans of Bombay” because of the legal suit filed by the latter, and instead charged the “Humans of Bombay” for stealing Brandon’s format.

On the social media platform, X, formerly Twitter, Brandon Stanton shared his dissent on the act of “Humans of Bombay” saying that the Humans of Bombay is suing another company for what he has forgiven it for.

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 feel comfortable doing on HONY. But you can't be suing people for what I've forgiven you for. https://t.co/0jZM05YyTt

— Brandon Stanton (@humansofny) September 23, 2023

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It was after this revelation that Karishma Mehta, the founder of Humans of Bombay was censured and trolled by social media users.

Now, the Humans of Bombay posted a statement responding to Brandon saying that he "ought to have equipped himself" along with what the aims of the company are before simply "jumping the gun on the matter".

"It’s therefore shocking that a cryptic assault on our efforts to protect our intellectual property is made in this manner, especially without understanding the background of the case.”

This is how the Humans of Bombay responded to Brandon Stanton.

However, the story does not end here. Recently, the Humans of Bombay shared a post expressing the fact that the company was actually "grateful to Humans of New York and Brandon for starting this storytelling movement". The Humans of Bombay also expressed that the copyright lawsuit was actually "related to the intellectual property in our posts and not about storytelling at all".

Here's how the company expressed its gratitude.

The next thing in the story is an old video surfacing online in which Karishma Mehta expressed that the idea of Humans of Bombay actually struck her "out of the blue".

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