Delhi High Court orders blocking of 12 websites illegally streaming Universal Studios content

The Delhi High Court recently ordered the blocking of 12 websites that were illegally streaming, hosting and disseminating the original content of Universal Studios LLC without the company's authorisation (Universal City Studios v. Vegamovies.run & Ors)..Justice Jyoti Singh observed that Universal Studios had successfully made out a prima facie case for the grant of an ex-parte ad-interim injunction in its favour..The defendant websites were thus restrained from hosting, streaming, reproducing, distributing and facilitating or making available to the public the original copyrighted content sans authorisation. The High Court asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to take immediate steps and issue the requisite notifications, calling upon various internet and telecom service providers registered under them to block the 12 websites identified..Appearing on behalf of Universal, Advocate Sai Krishna Rajagopal submitted that the 12 infringing websites - including vegamovies.run, themoviesflix.com.mx, tamilblasters.buzz, and uwatchfree.so - were providing illegal content for free, the availability of which was supported by advertisements on the website.Thus, they were liable for infringement under Section 51(a)(ii), Section 51(b) and Section 51(a)(i) of the Copyright Act, for making a copy of the original content, storing it by electronic or other means and communicating the original content to the public, it was argued.Interestingly, the concept of 'pirate branding' was also mentioned by the counsel appearing for Universal. In this regard, the Court noted,"Evidence collected by the investigator shows that the operators of the Defendant Websites are using known “pirate branding” to signal to users that the Defendant Websites are merely new iterations of sites that have been blocked earlier. Learned Counsel further submits that the Defendant Websites are in the form of new iterations and that the new iterations almost invariably have the same functionality and purpose as the earlier blocked sites...".The Court further said that in order for it to be free from constant monitoring and adjudicating on issues of mirror websites that host pirated content,"...it is directed that as and when the Plaintiffs file an application under Order 1 Rule 10 CPC for impleadment of such websites, Plaintiffs shall file an affidavit confirming that the newly impleaded website is a mirror/redirect/alphanumeric website which appears to be associated with any of the Defendant Websites based on its name, branding or the identity of its operator, or has been discovered to provide additional means of accessing the Defendant Websites and other domains/domain along with their subdomains and subdirectories, owners/website operators/entities which are discovered to have been engaging in infringing the Plaintiffs’ exclusive rights, with sufficient supporting evidence. Such application shall be listed before the Joint Registrar, who on being satisfied with the material placed on record, shall issue appropriate directions to the ISPs.".Advocates Sidharth Chopra, Suhasini Raina, Disha Sharma, Surabhi Pande and Sanidhya Rao also represented Universal..Delhi High Court orders blocking of illegal streaming websites airing Netflix, Disney, Universal content.[Read the order]