Khushi Bajpai
Published on: September 5, 2022 at 18:34 IST
Following Star India’s ex-parte ad-interim injunction request, the Delhi High Court has ordered 18 websites to stop illegally streaming the upcoming Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt film Brahmastra.
The film is a copyrighted creation of the plaintiff Star India, who made considerable investments in its creation and marketing, according to Justice Jyoti Singh.
The Court further stated that piracy must be stopped, dealt with harshly, and that rogue websites should not be allowed to screen for protected content without a court order.
The Court stated that, “Defendants No. 1 to 18 and all others acting on their behalf are prohibited from infringing in any way by hosting, streaming, retransmitting, exhibiting, making available for viewing and downloading, communicating to the public, providing access to, displaying, uploading, publishing, updating, and/or sharing on their websites through the internet or any other platform, the movie “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva” and contents related thereto, so as to infringe the Plaintiff’s copyright therein, till the next date of hearing,”
Various Domain Name Registrars (DNRs) were also ordered by Justice Singh to block or suspend the domain names of these malicious websites.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and the Department of Technology (DoT) have also been instructed to make notifications requesting that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ban access to the websites.
As the film’s producer, Star India approached the High Court with the claim that any third party who interfered with its exclusive rights would be considered to have violated the copyright.
The court was informed that the movie is scheduled for theatrical release on September 9 and that it is customary for a movie to first be released for theatrical exhibition before being made available for viewing on various platforms.
However, the Court was informed that the shady websites produce infringing copies in order to profit illegally and make them accessible for public viewing, downloading, and communication virtually simultaneously with the theatrical debut of the movie.
Star India continued by saying that, in the past, unauthorized copies of a number of films created or released by the plaintiff were disclosed to the public and made accessible for viewing and downloading on different websites just hours after their theatrical debut.
The court issued the instructions for website banning after stating that the plaintiff has shown a prima facie case for the granting of an ex-parte injunction.
Additionally, it issued a summons in the case and set a return date of November 29 before the Joint-Registrar.
Advocates Sidharth Chopra, Yatinder Garg, Vriti Jindal and Akshay Maloo appeared for Star India. None appeared for the defendants.