Ministry of Information and Technology to soon prepare guidelines on e-gaming
The Ministry of Information and Technology (MeitY) will soon be preparing a framework for permitting and certifying online games which involve money. The central government will now regulate the online gaming sector instead of the industry led self-regulatory-organization.
The government had notified the online gaming rules in April 2023 and had granted time of three months to the industry to come up with proposals for self-regulatory organizations. The proposals that were submitted to the government were dominated by the players in the online gaming market and thus, were rejected by the government.
Stakeholders meet to constitute One-Window Music Copyright Licensing Regime
The stakeholders being ISAMRA, IPRS, PPL, RMPL, NOVEX, CINEFIL, SRAI and IMI met to constitute One-Window Music Copyright Licensing Regime. The Regime shall be devised with the idea that copyright compliance must increase while facilitating ease-of-doing business. It was noticed that only 5% of the people using or exploiting music are paying royalties.
Alliance of Digital India Foundation moved Delhi High Court against inaction of the Competition Commission of India to decide the Google billing case
The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court against the inaction of the CCI to expeditiously hear and decide the matter on the interim relief application by the organization against Google in the user choice billing system case.
ADIF’s plea was that the pleadings were complete in July 2023 and despite several applications for expeditious hearing of the matter, no hearings were conducted and the expeditious hearing applications were disposed off.
Delhi High Court asks Mehul Choksi to appear before it in the suit against Netflix
In the suit filed by fugitive businessman, Mehul Choksi, against Netflix series ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’, the Delhi High Court has noted that if the Petitioner wishes to recourse to the courts of India, the Courts in India can ask him to appear before them. The Petition was denied on the ground that writ petition for enforcement of a private right was not maintainable.
Kerala High Court closes plea against Mammootty movie ‘Bramayugam’
The suit filed by the head of Punjamon Illam, a Brahmin household in Kerala, against makers of the Mammootty’s movie, Bramayugam, now stands withdrawn after the makers tell the court that Mammootty’s character’s name is changed in the movie. The suit was filed claiming that the family name was being defamed as the portrayal of Mammootty’s character in the film is negative and would tarnish the family’s reputation.
CBI files an application before Mumbai Court against docu-series on Indrani Mukerjea
The CBI has filed an application before a special court in Mumbai seeking stay on a documentary series, titled ‘The Indrani Mukerjea Story: The Buried Truth’ based on Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case. The series is based on the disappearance of Sheena Bora and is scheduled to release on Netflix on February 23, 2024.
The CBI has asked the Court to stay the release of the series till the conclusion of the ongoing trial. The court has now issued notices and the next date of hearing is February 20, 2024.
Club owners in Mumbai booked for playing songs without license
The owners of a penthouse club located in Kandivali East, Mumbai have been booked for allegedly playing songs without license and violating the Copyright Act. As per the case lodged, Tips Industries, Yash Raj Films, Zee Entertainment have appointed Novex Communication to issue ground public performance licenses for their creative products. Novex has been conducting inspections and drives to ascertain that the songs are not being played without due authorization.
Filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi gets 2 years jail in cheque return case
Popular filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi sentences to 2 years imprisonment in 11 cases each and ordered to pay INR 2.2 crore, in all, to a businessman. Santoshi has been found guilty of violating the Negotiable Instruments Act for not honoring 11 cheques issued by him to the businessman after borrowing INR 1.1 crore from him.
Sequoia Capital: Delhi High Court orders Meta platforms, Telegram to disclose details of malafide accounts deceiving investors
The Delhi High Court ordered Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and Domain Name Registrar to file reports in a sealed cover disclosing details, viz., mobile nos., email IDs, IP addresses, etc., of people running fake accounts, channels or websites and duping users, under the garb of Sequoia Capital.
The Defendants have been found committing fraud with general public by creating a false association with the Plaintiff. The Defendant No. 1 is operating a fraudulent online investment and trading portal, under the name and mark Senee Trader through the websites, www.senee.in, www.senee.net and www.senee.org and mobile application Senee Group and unauthorizedly used the Plaintiffs’ names and trademarks in fake job advertisements and fake Facebook profiles to dupe job aspirants.
The order of the Court can be accessed here.
Lawsuit filed by Silverman and other authors against OpenAI dismissed
The lawsuit filed by authors Sarah Silverman, Ta-Nehisi Coates and other authors against OpenAI over the use of the copyrighted books to train its generative artificial intelligence chatbot, dismissed by the federal judge. As per the order, the authors failed to identify and cite any particular output that is in any manner similar to their books. The authors have been granted the leave to amend and refile the suit.
Read order here.
US Trademark Office denies registration over GPT to OpenAI
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied the OpenAI’s trademark application for the mark GPT by holding the same to be describe the feature, function, or characteristic of the applicant’s goods and services and thus, unable to be registered.
