DKNY has apologized via Tumblr to a photographer and pledged $25,000 in his name for using his images without permission.
The response came after Humans of New York, a photography blog, posted an update by photographer Brandon Stanton claiming that the brand had used his images of DKNY store windows without permission. Stanton claimed that the brand offered him $15,000 for 300 photos. After checking with a friend, Stanton says he realized $50 per photo wasn't nearly enough, so he asked for more. At that point, DKNY refused. He ran photos with the update to make his case.
After taking his fight public, DKNY responded with a Tumblr post claiming it was a mistake:
For the spring 2013 windows program we licensed and paid for photos from established photography service providers. However, it appears that inadvertently the store in Bangkok used an internal mock up containing some of Mr. Stanton's images that was intended to merely show the direction of the strong visual program. We apologize for this error and are working to ensure that only the approved artwork is used.
The brand promised to donate $25,000 to the Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA in Stanton's name.
Stanton, who had originally been seeking $100,000, told Mashable that he is satisfied with the response: "I'm going to take them at their word that it was a mistake, and be happy that this ended with a sizable donation to my local YMCA. The money will do a lot of good there."
Stanton also said that he never contacted DKNY before airing his complaint on Facebook.
The incident comes a month after Redditors accused BuzzFeed of also using photos without permission. Following the complaints, BuzzFeed switched the photos in favor of Flickr content licensed under Creative Commons.
source: mashable.com
