Bombay High Court orders for dynamic injunction against Instagram handles in copyright suit by makers of Scam 1992

The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted a ‘dynamic injunction’ against 32 Instagram account holders and John Doe (unknown parties) in a copyright infringement suit filed by the makers of the web series Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story..Justice Manish Pitale held that 32 social media accounts added as defendants in the suit had used Instagram to illegally use parts or clips of the audio-visual content of the web series on their handles to promote their own business activities.This violated the proprietary rights of the makers, Applause Entertainment Private Limited..Applause apprehended such illegal activities by the present defendants as well as other entities by adopting different identities (social media handles) to circumvent the order of injunction of the High Court. Thus, Justice Pitale deemed it fit to grant an ex-parte relief of dynamic injunction.A dynamic injunction allows the holder of copyright to approach the courts to extend the main injunction order against all mirror websites who may access the infringing website..Applause had approached the Court asserting its copyright as owner and proprietor of publicity and character rights with regards to the web series and the members of the cast. In December 2022, it came across Instagram accounts using parts of the series, in the context of their businesses or for promotion of their accounts to generate revenue.The production house then filed a complaint against such accounts, but received no response from Instagram. The account holders allegedly continued with their activities of infringing on the proprietary rights of Applause. Further in March 2023, Applause discovered additional social media handles using clips and abridged versions of the web series. When this was flagged, Meta Platforms Inc, which owns Instagram, again failed to respond. The company eventually replied to Applause, claiming that it was not clear as to whether Applause was indeed the owner of the copyright in the series.In view of this, Applause was constrained to move the High Court..The Court restrained the defendants from infringing Applause's exclusive copyright subsisting in the web-series and asked them to delete the existing infringing posts on their accounts. Meta Platforms was also directed to remove/delete/take down the infringing posts from Instagram.Meta was further directed to disclose to Applause all particulars of these handles, including but not limited to their contact details, mobile numbers, email addresses, IP addresses and physical location..Advocates Hiren Kamod, Rahul Dhote, Narayani Prakash Choudhary, Raj Shah and Prashant Pandharikar, briefed by ANM Global, appeared for Applause. .[Read order]