How social media content creators are dealing with copycats

Ankita Sahigal has become widely known for ‘Newly Married’ videos on Instagram; the content creator uses her trademark lipstick on her teeth to make herself stand out from the sea of content creators. Pic/Nishad Alam

Ankita Sehgal was trolled the first time she put out her "dream-bahu" content. One of her first sarcastic dialogue was, "Mujhe Europe trip pe nahi jaana, mujhe mummyji ke guilt trip pe jaana hai (I don't want Europe trip, but a guilt trip from mom-in-law)". After she had completed a few reels in the series, she started getting comments that alleged she was copying another creator, RJ Karishma. "A lot of Karishma's fans began to say that I was copying her." Sehgal did the unthinkable. She reached to to Karishma, and only when the content creator gave her blessing, did she continue making her videos.

While this might be an ideal example of the camaraderie between social media content creators, not everyone is experiencing the same. The past two weeks have seen two incidents where social media content houses have alleged copyright infringement. The first incident was when the creator of Project Anti-caste spoke against the India Love Project and alleged that the latter has plagiarised content and the idea of inter-caste and inter-religion marriage and claimed intellectual proprietary rights over the content. The second and most recent is a lawsuit by Humans of Bombay, whose case against People of India will be heard in Delhi High Court on October 11 and is about copyright infringement. The former was able to prove that pictures which show inter-religion marriages as well as some of the accompanying text was directly lifted from Humans of Bombay's Instagram page which too features unlikely love stories and documents the struggle of the couple in facing family and societal pressure.

Ayush Guha, Anushka Rathod and Deepank Singhal

"While I might have been inspired by RJ Karishma, who is the OG of the saas-bahu content, it is all about how put your own stamp on it," Sehgal tells mid-day over a phone call from Delhi. In one of her reels, Sehgal had lipstick on her teeth, which then paved the way to her originality. "I got married around the same time and during one of the shaadi functions, I had lipstick on my teeth throughout the event. So, I kept it the same way for this reel, and it went viral," she says with a chuckle. Thus, was born her trademark. And even though a lot her content has been blatantly ripped off, she is grateful she says, that this trademark remains untouched.

Online, a wide-ranging conversation rages on about copyright, ownership of content and the constant fight between inspiration versus copying, especially in the highly-competitive social media wars. As a social media manager tells us, "There is no official body to take care of the creators and influencers, and hence, they are always under threat. All we tell the seasoned creators is, ‘keep ahead of the curve', and to the new creators we say ‘make it your own'."

Anushka Rathod, an OG finance creator, says that blatant copying is rampant and it has been difficult to keep track of who is mimicking her. "I had someone who would even use the same colour scheme as my videos! The only thing we can do is ask them to stop. Sometimes they listen and sometimes, they get angry," says Rathod.

Ayush Guha, who is Head of Business Development and Strategy at influencer agency, HYPP, and who handles Sehgal's work, says that it is hard to track copyright infringement, because the eco-system of the same is just too wide in India. "As compared to how many content creators there are, the number of influencer agencies is tiny. Big movie production houses have teams that monitor and send notices to those who might infringe on their content." He says that agencies try and approach the content creator who is violating the copyright terms themselves, "We usually DM the creator and ask them to either pull down the content or at least give credit saying that the original reel."

Deepank Singhal, an experienced Intellectual Property (IP) law attorney and lawyer, says, "In India, copyright in the artwork subsist the moment it is created, and it is not mandatory to register the copyright. Which is why many artists think that as soon as they have put out their video, reel, music, it is copyrighted, but this is not exactly true from enforceability point of view." If the artist does not register the copyright and if someone puts out anything that looks and sounds similar, the artist will face tough time in proving originality of its content and restraining the infringer from making wrongful gain out of it as the copyright registration certificate serves as the proof of originality before the courts in India. Even the take down mechanism on the social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook etc. requires an artist to submit registration certificate as proof of originality. "Content reels posted by creators on social media can be protected as "cinematograph film" under the Copyright Act, 1957. They only need to apply for a copyright registration, and can send a legal notice along with the certificate to the infringing party, if need be, in addition to various other recourses available under law."

Sehgal explains exactly how daunting the task of creating such videos is, and hence, why it hurts when someone copies you. "But, I really don't have time to invest in copycats because I have to put out a video per day that has to be on point. It should be well written and appeal to my fans. They can rip me off, but they can never be me."