LI Network
Published on: November 24, 2023 at 22:58 IST
The Delhi High Court has granted a ‘dynamic+ injunction’ order in favor of six American studios, prohibiting 45 rogue websites and their mirror/redirects or alphanumeric variations from streaming or making available for download both existing and future content of these studios.
This decision stems from the case of ‘Universal City Studios LLC & Ors v Fztvseries.mobi & Ors’ and was pronounced by Justice Prathiba M Singh.
The order, issued in response to a suit filed by Netflix Studios, Disney Enterprises, Warner Bros, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Universal City Studios, specifically restrains the identified rogue websites from streaming, reproducing, distributing, or making available to the public any copyrighted content of the plaintiffs, including future works.
The court directed Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the Department of Telecommunications, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to block access to these websites. Additionally, Domain Name Registrars (DNRs) of the rogue websites, upon intimation by the plaintiffs, are mandated to lock and suspend the domain names.
Furthermore, details regarding the registrants of these domain names, including KYC, credit card information, mobile numbers, etc., are to be provided to the plaintiffs.
It is noteworthy that a similar dynamic+ injunction order had been passed by the court in August, restraining 16 rogue websites from publishing copyrighted works of the aforementioned studios.
The recent suit emphasized the positive impact of these orders, indicating that several rogue websites were being blocked internationally, not limited to the territory of India.
The court highlighted the effectiveness of these measures by citing the example of the Cricket World Cup finals in 2023, which saw a significant reduction in unauthorized access, with over 5.3 crore logins.
The legal proceedings were represented by Advocates Saikrishna Rajagopal, Suhasini Raina, R Ramya, Mehr Sidhu, and Raghav Goyal on behalf of the plaintiff studios. Notably, no representation was made on behalf of the defendants in this case.”
