Delhi High Court restrains rogue torrent websites from illegally hosting Warner Bros content

The Delhi High Court recently granted a permanent injunction in favour of global entertainment company Warner Brothers while restraining "rogue" torrent websites from distributing, broadcasting, transmitting and streaming its content. [Warner Brothers Entertainment v. http.otorrents.com & Ors].While holding that the suit could be decided summarily as the websites in question were not represented, Justice Navin Chawla held,"The defendants have no real prospect of successfully defending the claim of copyright infringement and have further not chosen to contest the said claim...On basis of the evidence placed on record, and keeping in mind the factors identified by this Court in UTV Software (supra), I find that there is sufficient evidence to hold that the defendant no. 1 and 51 websites are “rogue websites” and that this is a fit case for passing a summary judgment invoking the provisions of Order XIIIA of CPC, as applicable to the commercial disputes.".Citing its verdict in UTV Software Communication Ltd. & Ors. v. 1337X.to & Ors, which laid down the law on grant of dynamic injunctions, the Court permitted Warner Bros to implead any mirror/redirect/alphanumeric websites which provide access to its content by filing appropriate applications supported by affidavits and evidence."Any website impleaded as a result of such application will be subject to the same decree," the judgment stated..The Court was hearing a suit filed by Warner Bros contending that the defendant websites were infringing its copyright by illegally streaming and hosting its content. The company submitted that an investigation was conducted by an independent investigator to probe the extent of the infringing activity of the rogue websites.It also informed the Court that a cease-and-desist notice was served on the rogue websites calling upon them to stop engaging in their infringing activities. However, despite the legal notice, it was contended that the rogue websites continue to infringe the rights of the plaintiff.Warner Bros thus sought the following relief from the Court:- Issue order and decree of permanent injunction restraining Otorrents from hosting and streaming its content;- Issue an order to ISPs to block access to Otorrents' website;- Issue an order directing the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and other government departments to issue a notification calling upon various internet and telecom service providers registered under it to block access to the website..In its order, the Court also noted that in 2019, it had directed the MEITY and internet service providers to block the domain name "Otorrents.com‟ and its URL https://otorrents.com. It was informed that pursuant to a notification issued by the government departments, ISPs had blocked access to the infringing websites..Advocates Sidharth Chopra, Suhasini Raina, Disha Sharma, Anjali Agrawal and Sanidhya Rao appeared for Warner Bros.Central Government Standing Counsel Nidhi Raman and Advocate Zubin Singh appeared for MEITY's Department of Telecommunications..[Read order here]: