Delhi High Court: Plaintiff, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (‘Zee’) sought interim injunction only against the continued availability of Zee’s copyrighted recordings on the library of the defendant, Mohalla Tech (P) Ltd. (‘MTPL’), thereby making the said recordings available to users who could exploit the recordings through the ShareChat and Moj Apps and websites. C. Hari Shankar, J., directed MTPL to ensure that, in its library, from which recordings could be accessed by users using the ShareChat and Moj Apps and websites, none of the 134 films/clips recordings were made available.
Zee claimed to own copyright in various music recordings, and it entered into a licence agreement dated 08-09-2020 with MTPL, whereunder MTPL was allowed to store Zee’s licensed content in its library, so that the content would be available to MTPL’s users who could listen, preview, and synchronize/incorporate the licensed content in their content. The said license agreement elapsed on 14-07-2023 and was not renewed thereafter and as per the reply dated 01-09-2023, from MTPL to Zee in respect of legal notice issued by Zee, MTPL had, consequent to the expiry of the license agreement on 04-07-2023, removed Zee’s licensed content from its audio library expeditiously, thereby restraining the users from utilizing the said licensed content in any manner whatsoever.
Zee’s grievance was that, despite the above assertions, songs, and recordings in which it held copyright, continued to be part of the curated library of MTPL, from which, using the Apps ShareChat and Moj as well as the website ShareChat.com and MojApp.in, users could exploit the said recordings. It was submitted that this would amount to infringement of Zee’s copyright and breach of the license agreement, and it would also be unauthorized as the license agreement between Zee and MTPL had already expired.
MTPL submitted that all such recordings which it might be making available to its customers through the ShareChat and Moj Apps and websites were either remixes or cover versions or constituted user generated content. MTPL further submitted that the only identified copyrighted content of Zee was 134 films/clips enlisted in Schedule 1A of the User Content and Revenue Sharing Agreement.
The Court directed MTPL to ensure that, in its library, from which recordings could be accessed by users using the ShareChat and Moj Apps and websites, none of the 134 films/clips recordings were made available. The Court clarified that there was no injunction on MTPL using the cover versions, remixes, or user generated content.
The matter would next be listed on 06-02-2024.
[Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. v. Mohalla Tech (P) Ltd., 2023 SCC OnLine Del 7260, Order dated 01-11-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Plaintiff: Kripa Pandit, Prabhu Tandon, Ankur Chhibber, Christopher, Advocates
For the Defendant: Dayan Krishnan, Senior Advocate; Sandeep Devashish Das, Swathi Sukumar, Kanak Malik, Kartikey Gupta, Advocates
