Delhi Court Orders Takedown Of YouTube Shorts Infringing Karl Rock's Copyright

A Delhi Commercial Court has recently granted an ex parte ad interim injunction restraining UK-based YouTuber Adam El-Megrisi, who operates the channel “VidBrew”, from reproducing or monetising content belonging to Karl Edward Rice, also known as Karl Rock, in a copyright infringement and passing off suit.

District Judge Vinod Yadav held that a prima facie case of infringement of copyrighted works and passing off was made out against El-Megrisi.

“In view of the above discussion, this Court is of the opinion that a prima facie case of infringement of copyrighted works and passing off is made out in favour of the plaintiff and against defendant No.1 and even balance of convenience is also lying in his favour. It can also be foreseen that irreparable loss in term of goodwill would be caused to the plaintiff if no interim injunction is passed in his favour", the court recorded.

Rice, a blogger and travel vlogger based in India, alleged that on or about May 8, 2025, he discovered that several YouTube “Shorts” uploaded by El-Megrisi reproduced substantial portions of his original vlogs without transformation. According to the suit, the content creator repackaged segments of Rice's travel and scam-exposure videos as short-form content in order to divert traffic and monetise them.

The court recorded that Rice had placed detailed comparative charts on record identifying corresponding timestamps in the original and allegedly infringing videos.

According to the plaint, Rice has created 829 videos on YouTube and has amassed approximately 31 lakh subscribers and more than 118 crore views on the platform.

He also relied on takedown notices issued in May 2025, the reinstatement of certain videos on May 30, 2025, and the continued availability of at least one allegedly infringing short as reflected in correspondence placed before the court in January 2026.

Holding that the balance of convenience lay in favour of Rice and that irreparable injury would result if interim protection were denied, the court restrained El-Megrisi from reproducing, uploading, sharing, distributing or monetising Rice's copyrighted content.

The court further directed Google LLC and its India liaison office, as operators of YouTube, to take down, remove, or disable the identified infringing content and URLs within 48 hours of receipt of the order and restrained reinstatement of such content until further orders.