Delhi HC Restrains Illegal Streaming Of Talk Shows Airing On OTT

 
The Delhi High Court has restrained the unauthorised streaming and broadcast of a talk show series titled 'Unstoppable' hosted on the OTT platform Aha. 
    
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, while dealing with a lawsuit by Arha Media and Broadcasting Pvt. Ltd., which holds the exclusive broadcast reproduction rights of the talk show, said any illegal broadcast would severely affect the monetary interest of the plaintiff and also diminish the value of the series. 
    
The plaintiff, represented by lawyers Pravin Anand and Ameet Naik, said on December 30, it is slated to air an episode with actor Prabhas Raju and it apprehends large-scale piracy of this episode. 
    
It urged the court to pass an injunction order to safeguard its rights and the huge commercial investment made by it in the talk show series. 
    
The court said if an ex-parte “dynamic injunction” is not granted against the websites named in the proceedings as well as unknown entities at this stage, the plaintiff would suffer irreparable loss and injury. 
    
“Accordingly, till the next date of hearing an ex parte ad-interim injunction is granted thereby restraining the Defendants (including John Does)….. from in any manner hosting, streaming, broadcasting (etc) on their websites, through the internet, or in any manner or platform whatsoever, the Plaintiff's talk show series titled 'Unstoppable' season 1 and season 2 or any other future seasons… amounting to an infringement of the plaintiff's Copyright and/or Broadcast Reproduction Rights in the said talk-show series,” said the court in its interim order passed on December 28. 
    
The court also directed the Department of Telecommunication and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to direct the Internet Service Providers registered with them to pull down all infringing links provided by the plaintiff and also block access to the various rogue websites hosting infringing content.