Delhi High Court: In a case filed by producers’ (‘plaintiff') of the film ‘Brahmastra Part One: Shiva' seeking permanent injunction and damages, for infringement of copyrights of the plaintiff, Jyoti Singh J., granted ex parte ad-interim relief restraining the rogue websites (‘defendants 1 to 18') and others acting for and/or on their behalf, from 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 present suit was filed against Defendants , which are primarily and substantially engaged in communicating to the public, hosting, streaming, etc. the copyright protected work and are vehicles of infringement, whose whole business model is designed to provide members of the public access to copyright contents, unauthorizedly.
Defendants 1 to 18, i.e. the rogue websites are set out as under:
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7movierulz.tc (Defendant No.1)
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vegamovies.wtf (Defendant No.2)
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extramovies.pics (Defendant No.3)
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9xmovies.yoga (Defendant No.4)
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1tamilmv.pics (Defendant No.5)
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Cinevood.vip (Defendant No.6)
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full4movies.store (Defendant No.7)
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hdmovie2.click (Defendant No.8)
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yomovies.skin (Defendant No.9)
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Prmovies.wiki (Defendant No.10)
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Movierulzhd.lol (Defendant No.11)
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Torrentcue.co (Defendant No.12)
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Tamilblasters.cloud (Defendant No.13)
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Tamilblasters.unblockit.ist (Defendant No.14)
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7starhd.agency (Defendant No.15)
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Uwatchfree.be (Defendant No.16)
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Mkvmoviespoint.art (Defendant No.17)
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Ssrmovies.kim (Defendant No.18)
It is the case of the Plaintiff that theatrical release of a film is the most important stage as the commercial value of a film depends on the popularity and success it achieves in this period. However, rogue websites in order to make illegal gains make infringing copies and make them available for viewing, downloading and communication to the public, almost simultaneously with the theatrical release of the film.
Placing reliance on Department of Electronics and Information Technology v. Star India Private Limited, 2016 SCC OnLine Del 4160 and UTV Software Communication Ltd. v. 1337X.To, 2019 SCC OnLine Del 8002, the Court noted 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.
Thus, the Court held that the plaintiff made out a prima facie case for grant of ex parte ad-interim relief as well as the balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiff and it is likely to suffer irreparable harm in case the injunction, as prayed for, is not granted.
[Star India Private Limited v. 7MOVIERULZ.TC, 2022 SCC OnLine Del 2744, decided on 02-09-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Mr. Sidharth Chopra, Mr. Yatinder Garg, Ms. Vriti Jindal and Mr. Akshay Maloo, Advocates, for the plaintiff.
*Arunima Bose, Editorial Assistant has put this report together.
