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D& #39;oh! I accidentally deleted the start of my most viral tweet thread ever. ( @Twitter, we need an undelete button.) So, reposting…
A few days ago we ran a piece in @techreview about some research purporting to explain the "hipster effect"—the fact that nonconformists often end up nonconforming in the same way. We used a stock Getty photo of a hipster-ish-looking man. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613034/the-hipster-effect-why-anti-conformists-always-end-up-looking-the-same/">https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613034/...
We promptly got a furious email from a man who said he was the guy in the photo. He accused us of slandering him, presumably by implying he was a hipster, and of using the pic without his permission. (He wasn& #39;t too complimentary about the story, either.)
Now, as far as I know, calling someone a hipster isn’t slander, no matter how much they may hate it. Still, we would never use a picture without the proper license or model release. So we checked the license. https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/photo/styled-for-the-street-royalty-free-image/520911717">https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/ph...
The image does have restrictions—e.g., if you use it “in connection with a subject that would be unflattering or unduly controversial to a reasonable person (for example, sexually transmitted diseases)”, you should say that the person in it is a model. #RF">https://www.gettyimages.ca/eula #RF ">https://www.gettyimages.ca/eula...
We weren’t implying that the model had an STD, only that he was a hipster. We didn& #39;t think this met the definition of “unflattering or unduly controversial.” But we thought of swapping it out for a different picture anyway, because, you know, who needs the hassle?
But Eric Mongeon, @techreview& #39;s fearless creative director, said, "Over my dead body are we taking down a perfectly good image because some dude doesn& #39;t like being called a hipster." Or words to that effect.
Eric contacted Getty Images. Getty looked in their archive for the model release. And came back to us with the surprising news: the model& #39;s name wasn& #39;t the name of our angry hipster-hater.
In other words, the guy who& #39;d threatened to sue us for misusing his image wasn& #39;t the one in the photo. He& #39;d misidentified himself.
All of which just proves the story we ran: Hipsters look so much alike that they can’t even tell themselves apart from each other. /ENDS
All of which just proves the story we ran: Hipsters look so much alike that they can’t even tell themselves apart from each other. /ENDS
(also, @tweetbot, this delete button placement isn’t ideal) https://twitter.com/glichfield/status/1103411017235746817">https://twitter.com/glichfiel...
