Site Runs Article About How Hipsters Look Alike, Man Mistakenly Complains to Them for Using His Image

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Jul 24, 2019 1:00 AM EDT

Editor Gideon Lichfield offered a wonderfully ironic complaint in regards to an article about the conformity of nonconformists. We couldn't have asked for some more solid irony. Are hipsters even still a thing? It's been like forever.

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    hipster - Text - Gideon Lichfield Follow @glichfield 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. The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the s... Complexity science explains why efforts to reject the mainstream merely result in a new conformity. technologyreview.com 1:45 PM 6 Mar 2
    via Gideon Lichfield
  • 02
    hipster - Text - Gideon Lichfield Follow @glichfield 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't too complimentary about the story, either.)
    via Gideon Lichfield
  • 03
    hipster - Text - Gideon Lichfield Follow @glichfield Now, as far as 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. gettyimages Peopemages Shot of a handsome young man in trendy winter attire against a woo... Shot of a handsome young man in trendy winter attire against a wooden background gettyimages.ca
    via Gideon Lichfield
  • 04
    hipster - Text - Gideon Lichfield Follow @glichfield 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. gettyimages.ca/eula#RF
    via Gideon Lichfield
  • 05
    hipster - Text - Gideon Lichfield Follow @glichfield We weren't implying that the model had an STD, only that he was a hipster. We didn'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?
    via Gideon Lichfield
  • 06
    hipster - Text - Gideon Lichfield Follow @glichfield But Eric Mongeon, @techreview's fearless creative director, said, "Over my dead body are we taking down a perfectly good image because some dude doesn't like being called a hipster." Or words to that effect
    via Gideon Lichfield
  • 07
    hipster - Text - Gideon Lichfield Follow @glichfield Eric contacted Getty Images. Getty looked in their archive for the model release. And came back to us with the surprising news: the model's name wasn't the name of our angry hipster- hater.
    via Gideon Lichfield
  • 08
    hipster - Text - Gideon Lichfield Follow @glichfield In other words, the guy who'd threatened to sue us for misusing his image wasn't the one in the photo. He'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
    via Gideon Lichfield

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