Courts can grant permanent injunctions against unauthorized streaming of copyrighted material, affirming producers' exclusive rights, especially when unauthorized use could cause financial harm.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)--This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

2. The present suit has been filed by Plaintiff No. 1-Star India Pvt. Ltd. and Plaintiff No.2-Novi Digital Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. against various rogue websites arrayed as Defendant Nos.1 to 42 in the plaint. In the suit, the Plaintiffs seek a permanent injunction restraining the said websites from retransmitting, broadcasting, streaming or in any manner communicating to the public the cinematograph film `Bhuj: The Pride of India'.

3. The Plaintiffs are producers and owners of various television channels as also `Disney + Hotstar' mobile application and OTT platform. The case of the Plaintiffs is that they are a leading production house and own exclusive copyrights in respect of a large number of cinematograph films as also other copyrighted content. The present suit relates to a cinematograph film titled `Bhuj: The Pride of India' which was set for release in 2021-22. It is a film related to the Indo-Pak war of 1971 and inspired from persons involved in the said war. The rights in the said cinematograph film are exclusively owned by the Plaintiffs.

4. The Plaintiffs had apprehensions, owing to various facts pleaded in the plaint, that the Defendant rogue websites were likely to indulge in unlawful streaming of pirated copies of the said film which would have had adverse monetary impact on the Plaintiffs. Accordingly, the Plaintiffs filed the present suit seeking the following reliefs against rogue websites as also the Domain Name Registrars (hereinafter `DNRs') of some of the domain names, ISPs and DoT & MeitY:

"i. Pass an order and decree of permanent injunction restraining the Defendants No. 1 to 42 on both 'http' and 'https' (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. 46, 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 Defendant Nos. 41 and 42 by Defendant No. 46 (GoDaddy) as already identified by the Plaintiffs in the instant suit in Memo of Parties or such other domain names that may subsequently be notified by the Plaintiff to be Rogue Websites which infringe its exclusive rights;

iii. Pass an order and decree directing the Defendant Nos. 47 to 55, 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. 1 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. 56