Star India Private Limited vs. 7Movierulz.Tc and Ors.
Star India Private Limited vs. 7Movierulz.Tc and Ors. – A Judgment Analysis
Star India Private Limited, a leading entertainment company, filed a suit seeking a permanent injunction against rogue websites for infringement of the Plaintiff’s copyrights in the film ‘Brahmastra Part One: Shiva’.
Plaintiff argued that the given film is a work of visual recording, including sound recording, and without authorization from Plaintiff, by any means, on any platform for ‘cinematograph film,’ hosting, streaming, communication of the film to the public, etc. Use as such would infringe the copyright of Plaintiff.
Plaintiff further claims that Defendant’s websites are primarily and substantially engaged in transmitting to the public, hosting, streaming, etc., unauthorizedly, the copyrighted work of others.
Plaintiff added that the rouge websites, to make illegal revenues, make available the infringing replicas of a film to the general public, which had been just released for theatrical presentation, which Plaintiff states is an essential step towards releasing a movie on a larger platform. Plaintiff claimed the same infringing act had happened with Plaintiff earlier, and accordingly, they comprehended that the rogue websites would attempt to do the same for the present film.
The Hon’ble Court further stated that Looking at the investments made by Plaintiff in the production and promotion of the film as also the exclusive right vested in it under the provisions of the Copyright Act, this Court prima facie agrees with Plaintiff that if the rogue websites communicate the film in any manner, on any platform, simultaneously with the theatrical release of the film on 09.09.2022 or in its close proximity thereafter, it would severely impact the interest of the Plaintiff monetarily and will also erode the value of the film.
The Court thus granted the plaintiffs an ex-parte ad-interim injunction, taking into account the exclusive rights vested by the Plaintiff in the production and promotion of the film and its exclusive rights under the Copyright Act, and ordered the plaintiffs to stop hosting the rogue websites. , streaming, etc., ordered the blocking of Plaintiff’s copyrighted material and domain names to the public and access to rogue websites.
Star India Private Limited vs. 7Movierulz.Tc and Ors. (02.09.2022 – DEOR) : MANU/DEOR/128568/2022
Judgment Relied upon:
- Department of Electronics and Information Technology v. Star India Private Limited, 2016 SCC OnLine Del 4160 and UTV Software Communication Ltd. (Supra).
- Star India Private Limited vs. 7Movierulz.Tc and Ors. (02.09.2022 – DEOR) : MANU/DEOR/128568/2022
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