[REWORK] Delhi High Court restraints John Does from publishing OTT platform Arha's talkshow "Unstoppable"

The Delhi High Court on Thursday restrained John Does from publishing Over-The-Top platform Arha's talkshow "Unstoppable" season 1 and season 2. 

A bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva has also directed the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to direct the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) registered with them, to pull down all infringing links and restrict access to rogue websites provided by the platform.

The Arha Media and Broadcasting Pvt Ltd had recently approached the High Court by instituting a ‘John Doe’ suit seeking an injunction to restrain illegal and unauthorized dissemination of the original web talk-show, which is set to air its upcoming episode tomorrow (December 30) featuring Telugu film industry superstar ‘Prabhas’. The company expects substantial viewership for this episode that would result in higher monetary gain. It has already spent Rs 17 crore for the production, promotion and marketing activities of the talk-show series.

It has been submitted that most of the parties that are infringing the Rights of the media company are doing so clandestinely and surreptitiously without a clear disclosure of their names, addresses and other details. That for this reason, due to the difficulty in identifying the various infringers, the Plaintiff is at this stage joining such infringers as John Doe parties in the present suit.

Considering the investments made by the media company in the talk-show series, the High Court has observed that any illegal broadcasting would severely affect its monetary interest and also diminish the value of the talk-show series.

The media company has been represented by the law firm Anand and Naik and the matter was argued by veteran Advocates Ameet Naik and Pravin Anand. 

Case Title: Arha Media and Broadcasting Private Limited Vs. www.vcinema.com & Ors.