Technology – IPR’s New ‘Saviour’

Source: SpicyIP

Executive Summary

The plaintiff (UTV Software Communications Ltd.) contended that the defendant websites (1337X, BMOVIES, FMOVIES, RARBG, THEPIRATEBAY, YTS, EXTRATORRENT etc.) host and provided access to their copyrighted works which is against the Indian Copyright Act. The defendants and their websites didn’t respond presuming they are hosted outside the country.

The Delhi High Court on April 10, 2019 through its judgement has given a new dimension to jurisprudence in India by delivering a significant contribution by creating a new rectification in the form of ‘dynamic injunction’ against the infringers.

Dynamic Injunction

This aims at tackling mirror sites (replication of the original website), or fake redirecting websites, blocking known pirated websites and to find the users who access by infringing the content.

Judgement

This involved seven issues to determine and made decisions out of it.

1. Copyright Infringement in Physical vs Digital World.
2. Indication of Website Blocking against Free / Open Internet Freedom.
3. Rogue Website [1] and factors considered it to be for Flagrantly Infringing Online Locations (FIOL).
4. Qualitative and Quantitative Test of Rogue Websites.
5. Categorization of Defendant Websites as ’Rogue’.
6. Proper Justification Check to pass directions in blocking the Rogue Websites.
7. New Procedure for dealing with mirror / alphanumeric / redirect websites.

Constitutional Impact

The Delhi High Court streamlined the case notes from provisions of Singapore Law. However, the Court held to create a similar solution with its powers under Section 151 of Civil Procedure Code (CPC) and the plaintiffs can avail impleading additional websites under Order 1 Rule 10 of the CPC.

The Copyright Act, 1957

This has hit The Copyright Act, 1957 which includes chapters I (Preliminary), III (Copyright), VIII (Rights of Broadcasting Organization), XI (Infringement of Copyright), XII (Civil – Remedies), XIII (Offences) and XV (Miscellaneous).

Final Direction

The court directs the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) & the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) who are also the defendants in this case to come up with a policy where individuals who access ‘pirated content’ can be notified of the same by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and if the providers do not cooperate for such actions may be subjected to fine or similar penalty.

The court has also directed MEITy and DoT to issue warnings in the form of emails, pop-ups or other modes cautioning the viewers.

Analysis & Key Takeaways

1. This is India’s First ‘Dynamic’ Website Blocking Injunction for Copyright Infringement initiated by Delhi High Court.
2. The ISPs should take responsibility to block the pirated content and report the infringements by some mean.
3. In the event of warning being not heeded to the viewers or subscribers continue to view, access or download the infringing content, then a fine could be levied on the viewers/subscribers.
4. This is an example, that a discussion of one case can benefit the future issues with another system.

References

1. http://www.copyright.gov.in/Documents/Copyrightrules1957.pdf
2. https://spicyip.com/2019/04/breaking-delhi-high-court-issues-indias-first-dynamic-website-blocking-injunction-for-copyright-infringement.html
3. https://spicyip.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/UTV-v-1337x-10.04.20191.pdf
4. http://lawgupshup.com/2019/04/delhi-hc-calls-for-dynamic-injunction-to-crack-down-on-piratebay-fmovies/

[1] A rogue website is one that subverts a legitimate website by appearing to replace it.