Delhi High Court orders blocking of websites illegally streaming Stranger Things, Friends

The Delhi High Court recently ordered the blocking of several websites which were found to be illegally hosting pirated films and television shows like Stranger Things, Friends, Batman, The Squid Game, The Jungle Book and others [Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc & Ors Vs animesugez.to & Ors].

Justice Tejas Karia granted the dynamic + injunction in favour of Warner Bros, Netflix, Apple, Disney and Crunchyroll to stop the piracy of their copyrighted content.

The Court said that their copyrighted work should be protected as soon as they are created, and they can implead any mirror / redirect / alphanumeric variations of the websites named in the suit.

"To keep up with the hydra-headed nature of the infringement actions of such infringing domains / websites, this Court finds it fit to grant a ‘Dynamic+ injunction’ to protect the Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works as soon as they are created, to ensure that no irreparable loss is caused to the owners of Copyrighted Works, as there is an imminent possibility of the Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works being uploaded on Infringing Websites or their newer versions immediately thereafter," the Court said.

The order was passed after Netflix, Warner Bros, Apple, Disney and Crunchyroll - members of the Motion Picture Association - approached the High Court stating that they are global entertainment companies and owners of the copyrights in several movies and series.

They argued that despite take-down notices to the piracy websites, they continue to infringe the copyrighted content, causing significant financial loss to them.

After considering the case, Justice Karia observed that the plaintiffs are owners of the copyrights and that the infringing websites were streaming the content on real-time basis and allowing downloading of the same. 

The Court noted that unauthorised infringement by the piracy websites can cause significant financial loss to the plaintffs, warranting a swift intervention.

Therefore, it passed a dynamic injunction order and directed the domain name registrars to lock and suspend the infringing websites within 72 hours and also provide the Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) details in a sealed cover.

The Court further directed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to the infringing websites identified by the plaintiffs within 72 hours

Advocates Siddharth Chopra, Raghav Goyal, Mehr. Sidhu, A Moin and Aditya Singh Thakur appeared for the plaintiffs.

Advocates Yash Raj and Geetanjali Vishwanathan appeared for two domain name registrars. 

[Read order]