A company in New York has threatened to sue DJ Bongz for copyright infringement over his money-making scheme.
|||Johannesburg -
Popular musician DJ Bongz announced a money-making scheme on Sunday that had him trending on Twitter - for the wrong reasons.
But that’s not the worst of his worries.
A company in New York has threatened to sue him for copyright infringement.
Bongz, who is famous for his Gwaragwara dance, tweeted that he had released a signature cap called the Gwaragwara cap for the steep price of R800.
The Star found out that he had used a picture of a suede cap from VIANEL New York which he altered to add his logo.
VIANEL soon heard that Bongz was using the image of the R4 600 cap to market his product.
They tweeted him to “please stop using our images to promote your product. This image is copyrighted and belongs to VIANEL only.”
The grey cap is part of their 2015 autumn collection.
VIANEL, which is popular with US celebs like the Jenners and Gigi Hadid, gave Bongz 24 hours to remove the pictures and said he hadn’t responded to their queries.
They tweeted many of the people who had retweeted the image and threatened to sue them too.
When Bongz initially announced the range of caps, tweeters expressed their shock at the price and laughed it off as ridiculous.
@Barry_Roux asked: “Bra DJ Bongz does your R800 cap come with Aircon?” while@Laza404 stated: “@Dj_Bongz hae broer, no disrespect mara we are not the guptas, we don’t have money to blow.”
DJ Bongz took the criticism in his stride by at first laughing with his critics, and then stating why his pricing was justified.
He tweeted: “If yo Blesser complains about the price of my caps then he’s NOT 1. He’s a Splender: someone who wants 2 b a blesser but lacks the funds. My cap will make your lover be faithful coz the fabric used makes your soul at peace * secured. So no need to cheat. It satisfies your life. These are not just caps. The are life companion caps. The material used it highly blessed and engineered to perfection #GwaragwaraSeason.”
He added that if a guy bought his girlfriend the cap, it was true love.
He went on to say that he valued himself highly: “Why should we be treated like dirt * overseas artists * brands praised like God? I believe in myself * my brand. My vision, my dream * my hard work will not be washed away by a few negative comments.” Many supported his outlook. Among them was @kolowang, who said: “We complain about @Dj_Bongz pricing of his cap but we buy US labels for thousands. Are we undermining our own self???”
lerato.mbangeni@inl.co.za
The Star