In the lawsuit brought by Star India about copyright infringement, the Delhi High Court has ordered up to 18 websites to stop illegally streaming “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva,” a movie with eponymous characters Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. In their lawsuit, Star India said that it is standard practice for a movie to first be released for theatrical screening before being made available for streaming on various platforms. The most crucial phase of a movie is when it is released in theatres since it is at this time that a movie’s commercial value is determined.
The co-producer of the Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt movie, Star India Pvt Ltd, filed a lawsuit, and Justice Jyoti Singh issued an ex parte temporary restraining order in response. She noted that the availability of the movie online concurrently with or shortly after its theatrical release would have a negative financial impact on the producers and devalue the movie.
The court ruled on September 2 that “Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for issuance of ex parte ad-interim relief.”
The plaintiff’s nameless malicious websites domain name registrations were ordered to be suspended or blocked by the court by the “Domain Name Registrants.” Additionally, it requested that the Centre send out the appropriate warnings requesting that the internet service providers restrict access to these websites.
“Defendants No. 1 to 18 and all others acting on their behalf are prohibited from infringing in any way by hosting, streaming, retransmitting, exhibiting, making available for viewing and downloading, communicating to the public, providing access to, displaying, uploading, publishing, updating, and/or sharing on their websites via the Internet or any other platform, the movie “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva” and contents related thereto.”
Additionally, the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology were instructed to send out the proper notifications requesting that different Internet Service Providers ban access to rogue websites.
“This Court prima facie agrees with the plaintiff that if the rogue websites communicate the film in any way, on any platform, concurrently with the theatrical release of the film on 09.09.2022, or in its close proximity thereafter, it would severely impact the interest of the plaintiff monetarily,” the court stated. “Looking at the investments made by the plaintiff in the production and promotion of the film as well as the exclusive right vested in it under the provisions of the Copyright Act.
