Delhi High Court imposes ₹20 lakh on websites illegally streaming Brahmastra Part One: Shiva

The Delhi High Court recently said that piracy of cinematograph films is one of the biggest causes for losses in the movie industry while holding several websites liable for damages of ₹20 lakhs for illegally streaming the movie, Brahmastra Part One: Shiva. [Star India Private Limited vs 7Movierulz.tc & Ors].Justice Prathiba M Singh passed a permanent injunction against at least 338 websites for infringing copyrights held by Star India Private Limited in the Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt starrer film Brahmastra Part One: Shiva. An interim injunction had been passed against some of the websites earlier. The suit revealed that the mushrooming of websites has become the norm, especially in respect of popular copyrighted content, the Court said.It added that though the authorities have implemented the various orders passed in this case, the identity of the persons or entities who were running these infringing websites mostly remained anonymous or is known only sometimes to the Domain Name Registrars. .The Court also took note that amendments were recently made to the Cinematograph Act, 1952 to deal with piracy in a stricter manner.“Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023 has been enacted and notified on 4th August, 2023 to curb the menace of film piracy,” it added..Star India had initially filed the suit only against 18 websites. However, the interim injunction was later extended to dozens of other rogue and mirror websites. The Court was told the defendants continued to infringe the content and that in order to circumvent court orders, they created mirror or redirect websites of the domains already blocked by the authorities."In addition, considering the fact that such a large number of websites were streaming or were found infringing the plaintiff’s copyright, the suit is also decreed against the defendants for damages to the tune of ₹20,00,000 which will be jointly and severally payable by the mirror websites," the Court directed.Advocates Yatinder Garg, Akshay Maloo & Rimjhim Tiwari represented Star India.Advocates Piyush Beriwal, Sahaj Garg, Disha Choudhary, Anandita Aggarwal; Mrinal Ojha, Debarshi Dutta, Anand Raja and Tanya Choudhry represented different defendants. .[Read Judgment]