Delhi High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Manmohan, J. decreed a suit for injunction filed by the plaintiff against unauthorized broadcast of its copyright work by the defendant.
The plaintiff, Super Cassettes, is one of the largest music companies in the country which is the owner of a large repertoire of copyrighted works comprising cinematograph films, sound recording, etc. operating under the brand T-Series. The defendant, on the other hand, provided cable television services. It was the case of the plaintiff that in 2015, it came to know about the unauthorized and unlicensed use of its copyrighted works on the defendant’s cable television network. A notice was sent by the plaintiff to the defendant requesting it to obtain the requisite public performance license to make its broadcasts legal. However, no response was received.
The High Court was of the view that on a bare perusal of the screenshot of infringing recordings and the cue sheet showed that the defendant had infringed the sound recordings, cinematograph films and underlying literary and musical works belonging to the plaintiff’s repertoire of songs. As the defendant had broadcast the said work without license, it was held to have infringed plaintiff’s rights under Section 14(a)(iii), 14(a)(iv), 14(d)(iii) and 14(e)(iii) read with Section 51 of the Copyright Act, 1957. Resultantly, the suit was decreed in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendant. [Super Cassettes Industries (P) Ltd. v. Shivam Cable Network, 2018 SCC OnLine Del 11695, decided on 03-10-2018]