RADHE PIRACY CASE
Zee has procured an ex-parte order from Delhi High Court against pirated copies of the film Radhe being circulated on Whatsapp. The Court has directed Whatsapp to forthwith suspend the WhatsApp accounts of certain defendants to ensure that the said Defendants cease the infringement of the Zee’s copyright on WhatsApp. It is further directed that in the event the Plaintiff brings to the notice of Whatsapp that any other WhatsApp account is being used for the purpose of selling infringing copies of the film, Whatsapp shall as expeditiously as possible, and not later than 24 hours from the receipt of the request from the Plaintiff, suspend such accounts.
Read order here.
Meanwhile, in the complaint filed by Zee before the Cyber Police, FIR has been registered against three individual users of WhatsApp and Facebook in connection with a pirated version of the film being leaked on social media hours after its release.
Zee had earlier procured a John Doe order from Madras High Court to curb the film’s piracy.
YOUTUBE’S UPDATED TERMS OF SERVICE MAY IMPACT CONTENT CREATORS
YouTube has updated its terms of service for all countries outside the United States. The news rules come into effect from 1 June. As per the new rules, content creators who are not part of YouTube Partnership Program will be rendered ineligible to earn revenues.
As per reports, all the content creators that have not signed up their partner program will need to include videos chosen by YouTube. Only YouTube will get monetized, the creators will not get any benefit from these videos. These videos will not generate any revenue for the channel owners.
The criteria for joining YouTube partner program is to have more than 1000 subscribers and 4000 public watch hours. Any channel that can fulfil these requirements is eligible to become a part of YouTube partner program.
TVF SERIES ‘ASPIRANTS’ ACCUSED OF PLAGIARISM
Nilotpal Mrinal, author of the book Dark Horse, has alleged that 30% of the story of TVF’s ‘Aspirants’ is lifted from his book.
Created by Arunabh Kumar, the web series follows the lives of UPSC aspirants staying at Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar.
In a social media post, Mrinal has written that he is going to initiate legal action against TVF for copying most of the story from his book and not crediting him for the same.
FAMILY MAN 2 CONTROVERSY
The Family Man 2 is facing the ire of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) chief Seeman, who has called for a ban on the web series “Family Man 2”, which is slated to stream on Amazon Prime Video on June 4.
NTK party leader Seeman released a statement on Twitter condemning the makers and accused them of not having the right intentions since LTTE is being portrayed as terrorists and having links with ISI.
The web series has been in controversy since the launch of the trailer of its Season 2. A section of the society has taken to social media to accuse the web-series for depicting the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu in a bad light. They have denounced the series as ‘anti-Tamil’.
DELHI HIGH COURT RESTRAINS WHATSAPP, TELEGRAM FROM SHARING E-PAPER OF TOI AND NAVBHARAT TIMES
The Delhi High Court passed an interim order restraining WhatsApp and Telegram and certain individuals from illegally circulating e-papers of Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd on their platform.
Justice Jayant Nath observed that prima facie the act of illegally circulating the e-papers of plaintiff on the defendants’ platforms is violative of its copyright and accordingly granted ad-interim injunction in favour of Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd.
VIACOM 18 MOVES BOMBAY HIGH COURT AGAINST PANORAMA STUDIOS OVER DRISHYAM 2
Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd. moved the Bombay High Court seeking to restrain Panorama Studios International Ltd. and Panorama Studios Pvt Ltd from producing any sequel to the ‘Drishyam franchise’ in Hindi language on the ground that it infringes their copyright.
The Bombay High Court recorded the undertaking of Panorama that they will not begin shooting of the film till the next date of hearing of Viacom’s application. It also recorded that if any preparatory work, such as developing a script, screenplay or dialogue is undertaken, then this will be at their own risk, and that they will not be entitled to claim any equities on that basis under any circumstances whatsoever.
Read order here.
T SERIES FILES INFRINGEMENT SUIT AGAINST RADIO BROADCASTERS BEFORE DELHI HIGH COURT
T Series has moved the Delhi High Court against certain radio broadcasters alleging infringement of their copyrighted works. Their claim is that the radio broadcasters have not complied with the requirements of Rule 29 in furtherance of the statutory licensing order passed by the IPAB on December 31, 2020. Therefore, any exploitation of their copyrighted content without appropriate license amounts to infringement of their copyright. The matter is pending before the Delhi High Court.
CASE REGISTERED AGAINST TAARAK MEHTA KA OOLTAH CHASHMA ACTOR MUNMUN DUTTA UNDER SC/ST ACT
A case has been registered against the Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah actor Munmun Dutta under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. She recently used a casteist slur in one of her make-up videos. After facing backlash, Dutta issued an apology on Instagram and said that the word was misinterpreted due to the language barrier.
