Delhi HC issues summons to American app in copyright infringement case by Yashraj Films
New Delhi, Jan 10: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued summons and notice to ‘Triller’ — an American video sharing app — in a copyright infringement case filed by Indian production house Yashraj Films.
A single-bench judge Justice Amit Bansal was dealing with Yashraj’s interim relief application seeking to restrain Triller from using its copyrighted material.
In its lawsuit, Yashraj has claimed that Triller has an extraction tool that allowed users to post audio-visual content or short videos using Yashraj’s works.
The plea read: “The defendant illegally uploads, stores, reproduces, makes copies, creates new works embodying the plaintiff’s works, commercially exploits, communicates to the public, makes a sound recording in respect of the plaintiff’s works, adapts, modifies, synchronises and/or otherwise exploits or permits the aforesaid acts by users of the impugned platforms, without a valid license from the plaintiff.”
The bench listed the matter for next hearing on February 2.
According to Triller’s counsel, the conflict between Yashraj and the social media company has been ongoing for some time, and he will follow the company’s directions in this regard.
Triller’s representative further claimed that the social networking platform has not ignored the issue and continues to remove content that violates copyright.
The lawsuit further claimed that even though some of the links mentioned in the warnings had been removed, Triller had not successfully complied with its takedown duty and that other of the links had persisted in being active or had appeared repeatedly.
“It is also pertinent to note that the impugned platforms contain various features, such as the audio extraction feature, which are beyond the limited role of an intermediary specified under Section 79 (2)(a) of the IT Act, thereby disentitling the Defendant from the ‘safe-harbour’ protection guaranteed to intermediaries under the IT Act,” the plea stated.
