Delhi HC grants relief to Universal Studios in plea against piracy of its movies in India

The Delhi High Court recently granted American film production company Universal City Studios interim relief on a plea complaining of large-scale movie piracy by rogue websites that misused the name of movie information database, IMDb.

Universal Studios had flagged the illegal upload of its films, such as Fast X, F9: The Fast Saga, and The Secret Life of Pets 2, on websites like "PlayIMDb" and "StreamIMDb."

The production studio submitted that while IMDb was a legitimate platform, its name was being misused by the rogue websites to upload copyrighted movies without permission.

The Court observed that the rogue entities redirected users from IMDb’s website to websites that were illegally streaming Hollywood films owned by Universal Studios.

In the order passed on May 8, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela passed the injunction order restraining such activities.

“This court prima facie finds that the defendants (PlayIMDb, StreamIMDb) violate the plaintiff’s (Universal's) copyright by operating rogue websites specifically designed to enable unauthorized access to the plaintiff’s protected cinematograph films, including titles such as Fast X, F9: The Fast Saga, and The Secret Life of Pets 2, without any permission, license, or authorization," the Court observed.

Universal Studios had submitted before the Court that the rogue websites enabled the pirated streaming of movies at their platform by distorting IMDb’s URL.

The Court noted that the rogue streaming websites devised a mechanism to redirect visitors from legitimate IMDb title pages to their unauthorised streaming platforms. There was even an instructional material guiding users to its pirated content.

The Court stated that such practices prima facie reflected a dishonest adoption of IMDb's URL, intended to exploit the goodwill and recognition associated with IMDb and to induce users into accessing infringing streams under the guise of legitimacy.

Further, the Court observed that the rogue websites caused irreparable harm to Universal Studios’ by loss of revenue and dilution of its exclusive copyrights.

The Court, therefore, passed an ex parte interim injunction order restraining the rogue websites from hosting, streaming or reproducing the copyrighted films.

The Court directed domain name registrars and internet service providers to block and suspend the websites specifically mentioned in the suit (PlayIMDb, StreamIMDb and others) within 72 hours.

The Court also directed the registrars to provide to Universal Studios the details of those running the piracy platforms, such as their KYC, credit card and mobile numbers.

Further, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information (MEITY) were directed to issue a notification to the Internet service provider to block access to the infringing websites.

The Court also granted liberty to Universal Studios to approach the court for granting an extension of this injunction to any newly discovered copyright infringers.

Further, the Court directed the domain name registrars and internet service providers to immediately lock or suspend any such newly discovered rogue websites pointed out to them by Universal Studios.

Advocates Saikrishna Rajgopal, Siddharth Chopra, Suhasini Raina, Mehr Sidhu, Raghav Goyal, Affain Moin and Aditya Thakur appeared for Universal Studios.

Central government standing counsel Satya Ranjan Swain represented Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information (MEITY).

[Read order]