I'm not surprised by this. Copyight is about the interpretation of an idea. If Marcel Duchamp claims copyright on putting a moustache on the Mona Lisa then I can see that I am stealing his idea by putting a moustache on another similar famous painting by da Vinci.
In this case the idea is the red bus against a black and white image. Actually I think the first one is "obvious" having seen Schindlers list, but I can see that others may not consider it "obvious" (You are allowed to infringe another person's copyright if their idea is obvious - I believe).
This is not about the images being similar its about stealing? the red bus v. black and white parliament image background idea. There was a similar case with the classic guinness ad where someone had already shot a man dancing around a pint of beer. Then Guinness created their own version and refused to credit/pay the man with the original idea (if I remember right)
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Roger Bamkin
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