A Bengaluru court on Monday directed social media platform Twitter to provisionally block the handles of the Indian National Congress and its Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) in a case related to music copyright infringement.
Music record label MRT Music, which owns the copyright for the music of the film ‘KGF – Chapter 2’, had alleged that the audiovisual promotions of the yatra headed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had illegally used music from the pan-India blockbuster movie.
Congress responded saying it was pursuing all legal remedies at its disposal and that it was not present during the proceedings and has not received the order.
We have read on social media about an adverse order from a Bengaluru court against INC & BJY SM handles.We were neither made aware of nor present at court proceedings. No copy of the order has been received.
We are pursuing all the legal remedies at our disposal.
— Congress (@INCIndia) November 7, 2022
Amid the row, News18 explains India’s Copyright Law and what legal course Congress could take xyxyxyx??
What Did the Court Order Say?
The order was issued by the 85th Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Lathakumari in response to a suit filed by plaintiff MRT Music alleging infringement of copyright by the use of KGF-2 music in videos uploaded by the opposing parties.
“Relying upon the documents produced by the plaintiff more particularly two CDs with regard to copyright piracy and also considering the prima facie material available against defendants 1 to 3 (INC, Supriya Shrinate and Rahul Gandhi) for having infringed the statutory copyright owned and held by the plaintiffs who has unauthorizedly and illegally used the sound records of the film KGF chapter-2 by affixing their logo on the said videos and further considering the provisions of Section 79 of IT Act, 4th defendant( Twitter Inc) is directed to remove and take down the links from its platform three links till further orders and further block the social media(INC and Bharat Jodo handles )till next date. Plaintiff to comply the ad-interim order passed by this court against defendants as per the provisions of Order XXXIX Rule 3 Civil Procedure Code by November 7,2022″ the judge said in her order, the Times of India reported.
After going through the material evidence submitted, the court noted that prima facie materials available at this stage, if established, will cause irreparable damage to the plaintiff and also encourage piracy. The court issued an ex-parte injunction that restrains the defendants from unauthorisedly and illegally using the copyrighted work belonging to the plaintiff till the next date of hearing.
On Friday, MRT Music’s counsel Narasimhan Sampath had said, “A complaint has been filed against the Indian National Congress represented by its General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, Supriya Shrinate, and Rahul Gandhi for infringement of copyrights owned by MRT Music.”
What is a Copyright?
Copyright is a type of intellectual property protection granted by Indian law to creators of original works of authorship such as literary works (including computer programmes, tables, and compilations including computer databases expressed in words, codes, schemes, or any other form, including a machine readable medium), dramatic, musical, and artistic works, cinematographic films, and sound recordings.
What Does Copyright Law in India Say?
The copyright law protects expressions of ideas rather than ideas themselves. Copyright protection is granted to literary works, dramatic works, musical works, artistic works, cinematograph films, and sound recordings under Section 13 of the Copyright Act 1957. Books and computer programmes, for example, are protected as literary works under the Act.
Copyright is a collection of exclusive rights granted to the owner of copyright by Section 14 of the Act. These rights can only be exercised by the owner of the copyright or by anyone who has been duly licenced in this regard by the owner of the copyright. These rights include the right to adapt, the right to reproduce, the right to publish, the right to translate, the right to communicate to the public, and so on, a report by Legal Services India explained.
Protection to ‘Original’ Works
All original literary, artistic, musical, or dramatic works, as well as cinematograph and sound recording works, are protected by copyright. The term “original” denotes that the work was not copied from another source. Copyright protection begins with the creation of a work, and registration is optional. However, for better protection, it is always advisable to obtain a registration. Copyright registration does not confer any rights and is simply prima facie proof of an entry in the Copyright Register kept by the Registrar of Copyrights.
First Owner of the Copyright
The author or creator of the work is the first owner of copyright, according to Section 17 of the Act. The employer becomes the owner of copyright in circumstances where the employee creates a work in the course and scope of employment, as an exception to this rule.
What is Section 79 of the IT Act?
According to Section 79 of the Information Technology Act of 2000, any social media intermediary will not be held liable for any third-party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by him. It also states that the available protection will apply if the intermediary does not initiate the transmission of the message in question, choose the receiver of the transmitted message, or modify any information contained in the transmission.
However, if the intermediary fails to remove or disable access to that material on that resource without vitiating the evidence after receiving actual knowledge or being notified by the appropriate Government or its agency that any information, data, or communication link residing in or connected to a computer resource controlled by it is being used to commit the unlawful act, then it face legal prosecution.
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