Point of Law: Indian Copyright Act, 1957 confers a bundle of exclusive rights on owner of a “work” and provides for remedies in case copyright is infringed.

JUDGMENT :

I.A. 18851/2022 (U/o XIII-A read with Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908)

1. The Plaintiff has filed the present suit inter-alia praying for the following reliefs:

“59. In light of the foregoing, it is most respectfully prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to:

i. Pass an order and decree of permanent injunction restraining the Defendants No. 1 to 32 (and such other websites/entities which are discovered during the course of the proceedings to have been engaging in infringing the Plaintiffs exclusive rights and Copyrights), their owners, partners, proprietors, officers, servants, employees, and all others in capacity of principal or agent acting for and on their behalf, or anyone claiming through, by or under it, from in any manner communicating, hosting, streaming, and/or making available for viewing and downloading, without authorization, on their websites or other platforms, through the internet in any manner whatsoever, the Film and content related thereto, so as to infringe the Plaintiffs exclusive rights and Copyrights,

ii. Pass an order and decree directing the Defendant No. 34, its directors, partners, proprietors, officers, affiliates, servants employees, and all others in capacity of principal or agent acting for and, on its behalf, or anyone claiming through, by or under it, to suspend the domain name registration of domain names of Defendants No. 1 to 4 by Defendant No. 34 (GoDaddy) as already identified by the Plaintiff in the instant suit in Memo of Parties or such other domain names that may subsequently be notified by the Plaintiff to be of Rogue Websites which infringe its exclusive rights;

iii. Pass an order and decree directing the Defendant Nos. 35 to 43, their directors, partners, proprietors, officers, affiliates, servants, employees, and all others in capacity of principal or agent acting for and on their behalf, or anyone claiming through, by or under it, to block access to the various websites identified by the Plaintiff in the instant suit at S. No. 2 of the Documents or such other websites that may subsequently be notified by the Plaintiff to be infringing of its exclusive rights,

iv. Pass an order and decree directing the Defendant Nos. 44 and 45 to issue a notification calling upon the various internet and telecom service providers registered under it to block access to the various websites identified by the Plaintiff in the instant suit at S. No. 2 of the Documents or such other websites that may subsequently be notified by the Plaintiff to be infringing of its exclusive rights.

v. An order for damages of Rs. 2,00,01,000/-to be paid by the Defendant Nos. 1 to 36 and such other websites/entities which are discovered during the course of the proceedings to have been engaging in infringing the Plaintiffs exclusive rights, to the Plaintiff on account of their illegal and infringing activities and a decree for the said amount be passed in favour of the Plaintiff (the Plaintiff reserves its right to claim additional damages and amend the pleadings accordingly once the magnitude of the Defendants' illegal/infringing activities and the revenues earned by the Defendants' in pursuance to such illegal/infringing activities is ascertained upon discovery in the instant action);

vi. An order for costs in the present proceedings in favour of the Plaintiff;”

2. The Plaintiff has impleaded the Domain Name Registrar as the defendant no. 34. The Plaintiff has also impleaded various Internet Service Providers (in short, “ISPs”) as the defendant nos. 35 to 43, and the concerned departments of the Government of India, namely, the Department of Telecommunications (in short, “DoT”) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (in short, “MEITY”), as the defendant nos. 44 and 45 respectively. The ISPs and the concerned government departments have been impleaded for the limited rel