Delhi High Court refuses to direct Newslaundry to take down video clips about India Today, Aaj Tak

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to grant interim relief to TV Today Network -- owner of news channels India Today and Aaj Tak -- in their defamation and copyright infringement suit against online portal Newslaundry. .Justice Asha Menon refused to direct Newslaundry to take down its allegedly infringing videos containing clips of India Today and Aaj Tak A detailed order is awaited. .Justice Menon held though there may be a prima facie case in favour of the plaintiff, the circumstances are such that no interim injunction can be granted against Newslaundry as there was no balance of convenience in favour of TV Today and no irreparable loss was being caused.The court further said that the matte should be treated as a commercial dispute and discussed under the broadcast rights rather than copyright. .The TV Today Network (TVTN) which owns news outlets like Aaj Tak and India Today channels as well as magazine had approached the Delhi High Court against Newslaundry and its founder-directors alleging defamation, commercial disparagement and copyright infringement.In its interim application, TV Today had asked for directions for the allegedly infringing videos to be taken down and action be taken against the website and its YouTube channel. .Advocate Hrishikesh Baruah appearing for TV Today, had argued that the respondents have used the plaintiff's copyright media without offering any valuable commentary or critique in an effort to demean their brand and news channels. The counsel said that Newslaundry’s shows were piggybacking on their content.“The fact is they are not doing it for criticism. These are visual media we are talking about and in a case of visual media if you don't have videos that are attractive, your content won’t succeed. They have used our videos for more than a minute while their own commentary is barely five or six seconds,” the counsel had argued..Search engine Google and social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter were also arraigned as defendants to the suit. TVTN had sought permanent injunction as well as damages of ₹2 crores. The suit was filed by TVTN through its lawyers Hrishikesh Baruah and Pranav Jain. The suit alleged that copyrighted material of the network has been infringed by Newslaundry without any authority. They had already approached YouTube for copyright infringement. Subsequently, the YouTube account of Newslaundry was suspended. Some videos uploaded by Newslaundry were taken down by YouTube citing its policy. Other videos are under review. Newslaundry is an online news portal which also reports on the media industry. The platform has several satirical shows. The portal's YouTube channel was suspended after complaints from TVTN against two of its shows..However, Newslaundry had contended that edited and half-baked content was being displayed in court which was wrong.“We are an organisation with a philosophy where we report and critique the media. They want to criticise everyone and want others to be thick skinned but when we criticise them, they become thin skinned,” the counsel had said while also alluding to the media outlets in the US where organisations like Fox News and CNN critique each other.."In poor taste:" Delhi High Court on Newslaundry's commentary on pending case against it