TV Today drags US company to Delhi High Court over copyright strikes against Instagram page

TV Today Network has approached the Delhi High Court against US-based celebrity news agency Backgrid USA, whose copyright strikes had led to the suspension of the instagram page belonging to TV Today-owned Harper’s Bazaar India [TV Today Network Limited & Anr v Backgrid USA Inc & Ors]..Backgrid had made three copyright strikes against Harper's Bazaar India for allegedly using fifteen Halloween pictures without authorisation. After the Harper's Bazaar India instagram page was suspended on account of these strikes, TV Today had initially filed a plea against Meta (which owns Instagram) before the High Court. While considering this plea, the High Court told TV Today to approach the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) constituted under Information Technology Rules for relief. The GAC has since upheld Meta's decision to suspend the Harper's Bazaar India Instagram page.Following this, TV Today has now filed a case against Backgrid before the Delhi High Court. This case came up before Justice Anish Dayal on Tuesday..Advocate Hrishikesh Baruah appeared for TV Today and said that he is seeking restoration of Harper’s Bazaar India Instagram account.The Court was told that Harper’s Bazaar pulled out fifteen photographs from fan pages and put them on their platform, but Backgrid made a copyright strike which led to suspension of its page.Baruah said that according to him, the use of the photographs falls under fair use but Backgrid was asking for nearly US$ 2,000 of each of the pictures to revoke their strikes, even though they charge much less for normal use..Advocate Tejas Karia appeared for Meta (Instagram) and informed the Court of TV Today's earlier writ petition against Meta, which also challenges the Information Technology Rules concerning suspension of accounts, and which is pending before a Division Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan.Karia told the Court that the Division Bench had asked TV Today to go before the GAC under IT Rules to challenge the suspension of its account.TV Today approached the GAC which upheld Meta’s decision, Karia said.Justice Dayal said that the matter will be heard tomorrow.."Your situation is worse than a government department": Delhi High Court pulls up Meta.Meta had earlier told the Division Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan that Harper’s Bazaar India’s Instagram page was blocked to comply with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules) after three copyright strikes.The US-based tech giant had said that Harper's Bazaar India account was blocked after it failed to reply to Meta's emails regarding copyright strikes.The submission was made in response to the writ plea filed by TV Today, which also challenged Rule 3(1)(c) of the IT Rules. TV Today contended that this rule allows an intermediary to block access to accounts without providing a fair opportunity for users to contest such a decision.After considering the arguments, the Division Bench on May 1 asked TV Today to make its case before the GAC, which was ordered to decide on the matter within a week.