Delhi High Court: A Single Judge Bench of C. Hari Shankar, J. restrained 101 rogue websites from posting, streaming, reproducing, distributing, or making available to the public, on their websites, or through the internet, in any manner whatsoever, any cinematograph work/content/program in which the plaintiff, Sony Pictures Animation Inc. had copyright, including the films “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”. Further, the Court directed the Internet Service Providers to block access to the 101 rogue websites as well as any mirror/redirect/alphanumeric websites which appeared to be associated with any of the said rogue websites.
Background
The plaintiff was aggrieved by the fact that the movie “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was available for viewing on various websites, which were characterized in the suit as rogue websites, because the plaintiff, as the copyright holder in the cinematograph film, had not licensed the right to broadcast or communicate, to the public, the said film to any other authorities/websites, except its own. It was also submitted that several of the impugned websites had advertised the impending broadcast of the film, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”, which was supposedly the sequel of the film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”. Thus, it was submitted that the plaintiff’s copyright in the films “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” had/were in the process of being infringed and violated by Defendants 1 to 101.
The Court relied on UTV Software Communication Ltd. v. 1337X.To, 2019 SCC OnLine Del 8002 and opined that prima facie, the websites at serial nos. 1 to 101 qualified as “rogue websites”. Thus, the Court held that the plaintiff would be entitled to ex-parte interim relief.
The Court passed the following directions:
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Defendants 1 to 101 (rogue websites) were restrained from posting, streaming, reproducing, distributing or making available to the public, on their websites, or through the internet, in any manner whatsoever, any cinematograph work/content/program in which the plaintiff had copyright, including the films “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse”.
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Defendants 102 to 110 (Internet Service Providers) were directed to block access to the websites at Serial Nos. 1 to 101, as well as any mirror/redirect/alphanumeric websites which appeared to be associated with any of the said websites.
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Defendants 111 to 112 (Department of Telecommunications and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology respectively) were directed to issue a notification calling on all internet and telecom service providers to block access to the websites at Serial Nos. 1 to 101.
The matter would next be listed on 31-7-2023 before the Joint Registrar (Judicial) for completion of the pleadings, admission and denial of documents and marking of exhibits.
[Sony Pictures Animation Inc. v. FLIXHD.CC, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 3286, Order dated 29-5-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Plaintiff: Saikrishna Rajagopal, Suhasini Raina, Ramya Ramkumar, Mehr Sidhu, Raghav Goyal, Sanidhya Rao, Anjali Agrawal, Advocates.
