The Delhi High Court has directed the blocking of several websites found to be illegally streaming and hosting pirated films and television shows such as Stranger Things, Friends, Batman, Squid Game, The Jungle Book and others.
The bench headed by Justice Tejas Karia passed this order in favour of Warner Bros, Netflix, Apple, Disney and Crunchyroll, directing action against websites involved in large-scale piracy of their copyrighted content.
The order was passed in a suit filed by the companies, all members of the Motion Picture Association, which stated that they own copyrights over several popular movies and series.
"To keep up with the hydra-headed nature of the infringement actions of such infringing domains / websites, this Court finds it fit to grant a ‘Dynamic+ injunction’ to protect the Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works as soon as they are created, to ensure that no irreparable loss is caused to the owners of Copyrighted Works, as there is an imminent possibility of the Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works being uploaded on Infringing Websites or their newer versions immediately thereafter," the Court said.
After examining the material on record, Justice Karia observed that the plaintiffs were the rightful copyright holders and that the infringing websites were streaming the content in real time and permitting downloads. The Court noted that such unauthorised exploitation of copyrighted works could cause serious financial harm, calling for immediate judicial intervention.
The Court held that copyright protection begins the moment a work is created and allowed the plaintiffs to implead mirror, redirect or alphanumeric variations of the infringing websites without seeking fresh permission.
Accordingly, the High Court directed domain name registrars to lock and suspend the infringing websites within 72 hours and to submit the Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) details in a sealed cover. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were also directed to block access to the identified websites within the same timeframe.
Advocates Siddharth Chopra, Raghav Goyal, Mehr Sidhu, A. Moin and Aditya Singh Thakur appeared for the plaintiffs, while advocates Yash Raj and Geetanjali Vishwanathan represented two domain name registrars.
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