Humans of Bombay vs People of India: No monopoly in running storytelling platforms, says Delhi HC

The court thus held that if a subject shares the image with a storytelling platform, it cannot be covered by copyright unless a platform had commissioned the photo

The Delhi High Court on October 11 put an end to the copyright infringement case filed by Humans of Bombay against People of India after both parties agreed not to use each other's photos, videos, literary work and creative expression.

The HC noted that it will not restrain anyone from running a platform like Humans of New York or Humans of Bombay, however, when images and content owned by one platform are used by the other platform without authorisation, it amounts to copyright violation. The court concluded that there cannot be a monopoly. The HC said, "Ideas cannot be copyrighted, the way they are expressed can be subject to law."

The People of India argued that there may be a few common images as the subject of the story might have shared it with both platforms. The lawyer further told the court that Humans of Bombay is also guilty of using images owned by other platforms.

Abhishek Malhotra, lawyer for Humans of Bombay, denied the claim. He submitted that Humans of Bombay is not claiming copyright in running a storytelling platform, but only on the images, videos, literary work and creative expression.

The court thus held that if a subject shares the image with a storytelling platform, it cannot be covered by copyright unless a platform had commissioned the photo. However, if a subject shares a photo from her private collection with both platforms, it cannot be copyrighted. However, the way a platform writes a story or chooses to express the story (creative expression) can be copyrighted.

Humans of Bombay approached the Delhi High Court in September, seeking an injunction to prevent People of India, an Instagram-based storytelling platform, from using the former’s content. Humans of Bombay pointed out a particular story, alleging that People of India is an identical portal having identical content as that of Humans of Bombay.

Humans of Bombay said it engages in substantial research and approaches people who would be interested in sharing their stories. These stories are then converted into audio-video works and published on the various platforms of Humans of Bombay. Delhi HC issued a notice to the People of India.

Brandon Stanton, the creator of “Humans of New York”, took to X (formerly X), reacting to the lawsuit by “Humans of Bombay”.

“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,” Stanton

The Mumbai-headquartered company issued an open letter to Stanton, calling it a “cryptic assault on our efforts to protect our intellectual property”. It further clarified the issue, sharing details of the lawsuit.