Debangana Ray
Published on June 22, 2022 at 16:07 IST
Last week, the Bombay High Court passed a John Doe order directed the removal of pirated versions and links of the film ‘Janhit mein Jaari’ on the internet and social media.
Single-judge bench Justice Riyaz Chagla also directed police station to ensure that “unidentified defendants” do not continue infringing the copyright of the film.
The court was hearing an Intellectual property rights petition filed by the producers of the film, Bhanushali Studios Ltd. Seeking an injunction against the unidentified persons who created the pirated versions of the film and uploaded them on the internet.
The court stated that, “In my prima facie view, a case has been made out by the plaintiffs that the defendant No. 2 which is an unknown entity and who have been proceeded against in John Doe action is by virtue of the infringing links on the internet directly infringing the copyright held by the producers or the plaintiffs in the film as these unknown defendants appear to have no licence and/or authority to make available a copy of the film to the public,”
The film was released on June 10, 2022. However, the pirated links were found on June 11, 2022 by the producers on the social media app, Telegram.
Since, the film was available for free, no user would want to watch it on an Over The Top (OTT) platform and hence, no OTT platform would now want to air the film on its brand.
Telegram has been asked to remove the links from its app. Telegram further assured that such links will be immediately removed by it in the future.
Justice Chagla noted that “In fact, this case is on a higher footing, considering that the subject film was already released on June 10, 2022 and thereafter, the infringing links of the internet have surfaced.”
“Thus, it appears that directly a revenue loss has been incurred to the plaintiff apart from the infringing links prima facie infringing the copyright held by the producers or plaintiffs in the subject film”
He, therefore, passed a John Doe order in favour of the plaintiff.