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Star India Pvt. Ltd contended that the rouge website infringement would directly impact the commercial value of the film, as 'it is an industry practice to release it for theatrical exhibition first'
While granting an ex-parte ad-interim injunction to Star India Pvt. Ltd, the Delhi High Court on Friday restrained 18 websites from streaming the film ‘Brahmastra Part One: Shiva’, which is scheduled to release on September 9 this year.
A bench of Justice Jyoti Singh also directed the Department of Technology (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to send notifications to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) requesting even the access to the websites to be blocked.
The Court observed, “There is no gain in saying that piracy must be curtailed and dealt with harshly, and an injunction against the screening of copyrighted content by rogue websites should be granted”.
It was hearing a suit filed by a leading Producer and Distributor of movies and television shows, Start India Private Limited, who is a co-producer of the movie in question ‘Brahmastra Part One: Shiva’. It argued that being the co-producer of the film, it is an author under Section 2(d) of the Copyright Act, 1957, thus, an owner as per the provisions of Section 17 of the said Act.
It was further argued that because the film is a work of visual recording, including sound recordings, it qualified as a 'cinematograph film' under Section 2(f) of the Act, and as the film was going to be released in India, it would be entitled to all rights and protections granted under the Act for cinematographic films. And that, if any third party interferes or exploits any of the exclusive rights without its permission, it would be an infringement of its copyright under Section 51 of the Act.
Star India. also stated that it apprehends that rogue websites will distribute infringing copies of the film on various websites, which will have a direct impact on its business and erode the value of the film in addition to infringing its copyright.
Taking note of the submissions of Star India, the Bench opined, “If the rogue websites communicate the film in any way, on any platform, concurrently with the theatrical release of the film on September 9, 2022, it will have a significant financial impact on Star India and will erode the value of the film”.
Court ordered, "Defendants No. 1 to 18 and all others acting for and/or on their behalf are restrained from in any manner hosting, streaming, retransmitting, exhibiting, making available for viewing and downloading, providing access to and/or communicating to the public, displaying, uploading, modifying, publishing, updating and/or sharing on their websites through the internet or any other platform, the film ‘Brahmastra Part One: Shiva’ and contents related thereto, to infringe the Plaintiff’s copyright therein, till the next date of hearing,”
Accordingly, Court granted an ex parte ad-interim injunction to Star India and directed the defendants to comply with the provisions of Order 39 Rule 3 Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) within one week.
CASE TITLE: Star India Private Limited v 7Movierulz.tc & Ors
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