Delhi High Court warrant against Triller on Yashraj Films copyright infringement
The case will be heard on 2 February
The Delhi High Court has issued a summons to the American video-sharing social networking platform Triller on a suit filed by Indian production house Yashraj Films alleging copyright infringement.
The single-judge bench of Justice Amit Bansal also issued a notice on Yashraj’s interim relief application to restrain Triller from allowing infringement of its copyrighted material.
The counsel for Triller stated that the dispute between Yashraj and the social media company was going on for some time and he would take instructions from the company in the matter. He added that Triller had not turned a blind eye to the problem and had been removing the copyrighted material.
Yashraj argued that Triller had an extraction tool that made available the former’s works for uploading audio-visual content/short videos to the users.
The plea stated, “[The defendant] illegally uploads, stores, reproduces, makes copies, creates new works embodying the plaintiff’s works, commercially exploits, communicates to the public, makes a sound recording in respect of the plaintiff’s works, adapts, modifies, synchronizes and/or otherwise exploits or permits the aforesaid acts by users of the impugned platforms, without a valid license from the plaintiff.”
It added, “Though the plaintiff sent several cease & desist notices to the defendant, some of which have been responded to by the defendant, the defendant has sought to rely on the ‘safe-harbour’ protection guaranteed to intermediaries under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [a USA enactment, which also finds a place in Indian law in the form of Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act)] in order to continue its infringing activity.”
The suit further stated that though some links indicated in the notices were taken down, Triller failed to comply with its takedown obligation effectively and several of the links remained active and/or continued to resurface repetitively.
The plea further mentioned, “It is also pertinent to note that the impugned platforms contain various features, such as the audio extraction feature, which are beyond the limited role of an intermediary specified under Section 79 (2)(a) of the IT Act, thereby disentitling the defendant from the ‘safe-harbour’ protection guaranteed to intermediaries under the IT Act.
Yashraj Films is being represented by advocates Abhishek Malhotra and Shilpa Gamnani of TMT Law Practice.