Delhi High Court Blocks Piracy Websites From Streaming Amazon's Kunal Kemmu, Preity Zinta Film 'VIBE'

The Delhi High Court has restrained 11 piracy websites, including Cinevood, PVRPlay and 1TamilMV, from hosting, streaming or otherwise making Amazon's upcoming film “VIBE” available online without authorisation, ahead of its scheduled theatrical release.Justice Jyoti Singh passed the ex parte ad interim order on September 15 in a suit filed by Amazon Seller Services Private Limited. The film is scheduled for a pan-India theatrical release on September 18, 2026.“VIBE” is written and directed by...

Delhi High Court Orders Blocking Of Websites Illegally Streaming F1 Racing, ATP Tennis, Saudi Pro League

The Delhi High Court has recently ordered the blocking of four rogue websites accused of illegally streaming Formula 1, ATP Tour and Saudi Pro League events in India, for which FanCode has exclusive broadcasting rights.Justice Jyoti Singh passed the order on September 10, granting Sporta Technologies, which owns and operates FanCode, an ex parte ad interim injunction. The court found that Sporta had made out a prima facie case, that the balance of convenience lay in its favour and that it was...

Delhi High Court Issues Notice On ANI Appeal Against Rejection Of Interim Injunction Plea Against OpenAI

On Tuesday, 15 September, a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court issued notice on Asian New International (ANI)'s appeal against the rejection of its interim injunction application against OpenAI Inc. in its copyright infringement suit. Justices Avneesh Jhingan and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora sought OpenAI's response and listed the appeal for further hearing on 8 December. Background: ANI sued OpenAI in November 2024, alleging that ChatGPT was trained on its copyrighted news content...

“Copyright Strikes Have Taken Front Seat Over Personality Rights Cases”: Delhi High Court On Comedian Pulkit Mani's Plea

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday orally remarked that copyright strike disputes are increasingly taking precedence over personality-rights cases. Justice Jyoti Singh remarked, “Personality rights have taken a back seat, copyright strikes have taken a front seat, every day one matter.” The observation came while hearing a suit filed by stand-up comedian Pulkit Mani. He has challenged copyright strikes against his content on his Instagram page @hunnywhoisfunny and alleged an attempt to extract...

Nehle Pe Dehla Rights Row: Bombay High Court Awards ₹1.92 Crore To Ultra Distributors

The Bombay High Court has declared Ultra Distributors Pvt. Ltd. the sole and exclusive holder of the video, cable television and video-on-demand rights to the 1976 Bollywood film Nehle Pe Dehla, starring Sunil Dutt, Vinod Khanna and Saira Banu. Justice Arif S. Doctor held that the March 31, 2005 agreement under which Dhariwal Films assigned these rights to Ultra was valid and binding.The court also held that Dhariwal Films failed to provide Ultra with Digibeta Master tapes of commercially...

Copyright Disputes Can Be Resolved Through Arbitration Despite Remedy Under Copyright Act: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court has ruled that a copyright infringement dispute can be resolved through arbitration when the parties have agreed to that mode of dispute resolution, holding that the civil remedy available under the Copyright Act does not prevent arbitration.Justice K. Kumaresh Babu ruled,“It is true that Section 55 provides for a civil remedy in an infringement of a copyright. There can be no doubt that the civil remedy can also be by a process of arbitration, as arbitration is in the form...

Madras High Court Allows Theatrical Release Of Jayam Ravi-Starrer 'Karathey Babu' Amid Copyright Dispute

On 1 September, the Madras High Court permitted Screen Scene Media Entertainment to proceed with the theatrical release of Tamil film Karathey Babu, starring Jayam Ravi, and modified an interim injunction that had restrained the producer from releasing, distributing or otherwise dealing with the film. Justice K. Kumaresh Babu passed the order on applications filed by Screen Scene Media Entertainment seeking to vacate the interim injunction in a suit filed by Dr. S. Venkatesh. The Bench...

Copyright Office Says AI System DABUS Can't Be Copyright 'Author' Under Indian Law

On 31 August, the Indian Copyright Office rejected an application seeking registration of copyright in an artwork on the ground that its stated author, an artificial intelligence system called DABUS, is not a person recognised in law and therefore cannot be named as an author under the Copyright Act, 1957. Registrar of Copyrights Prof. (Dr.) Unnat P. Pandit passed the order while considering an application filed by Dr. Stephen L. Thaler for registration of the artistic work titled “A Recent...

Calcutta High Court Rejects Injunction Against New Central Book Agency After Years Of Inaction

The Calcutta High Court on 27 August dismissed an interim injunction application filed by Pares Chandra Das, author and original copyright holder of two English grammar textbooks, and his son Amitava Das, against their long-time publisher, New Central Book Agency Private Limited. Justice Krishna Rao held that authors cannot seek an interim injunction against continued publication of their books after allowing the publisher to publish them for years despite claiming that the publication...

Madras High Court Rejects Film Archive's Copyright Claim Over 'Aval Appadithan' Production Stills

The Madras High Court on 27 August dismissed an appeal filed by The Cinema Resource Centre, a Chennai-based film archive, in a copyright dispute over production photographs from the 1978 Tamil film Aval Appadithan. A Division Bench of Justices P. Velmurugan and K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi upheld the 2021 order of a Single Judge directing the archive to return the original photographs, delete their digital and physical copies, and stop displaying them on its website. The judges observed: “The...

Supreme Court Issues Notice On Plea Against Bombay HC Ruling Trademark Evidence Deadline Is Directory

The Supreme Court on 24 August issued notice on Black Diamond Motors Pvt. Ltd.'s challenge to a Bombay High Court judgment holding that the two-month period prescribed under Rule 45 of the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 for filing an evidence affidavit is directory and not a mandatory deadline. A Division Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran made the notice “returnable after four weeks” and directed that “in the meantime, the proceedings of rectification shall remain stayed.” The...

Ilaiyaraaja Moves Top Court Against Delhi HC's Review Dismissal In 'En Iniya Pon Nilave' Copyright Dispute

Music composer Ilaiyaraaja has moved the Supreme Court through a Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the Delhi High Court's dismissal of his review petition in a copyright dispute concerning the sound recording of “En Iniya Pon Nilave” from the Tamil film Moodu Pani. The dispute arose after Saregama India Ltd. initiated proceedings against Vels Film International Ltd. (VFIL) over its proposed use of a recreated version of “En Iniya Pon Nilave” in Aghathiyaa. VFIL relied on an agreement...