A Bengaluru court has ordered Twitter to temporarily block the handles of the Congress party and its Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign, in a copyright infringement suite.
The commercial court held that if the Congress and its leaders are not restrained from the unauthorised use of songs from KGF-2, it would cause “irreparable injury” to the plaintiff and also “encourage piracy”.
The Congress, in response, said it was "pursuing all the legal remedies at our disposal".
"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," the Congress's official handle tweeted.
On Friday (November 4), three senior Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi were booked for alleged unauthorised usage of the music from the blockbuster Kannada film ‘KGF-2’ during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The FIR was registered at the Yashwanthpur police station under the provisions of Copyright Act, the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code against Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate. The complaint was lodged by M Naveen Kumar, who manages MRT music, which owns the copyright to KGF-2 songs.
The complainant alleged that Jairam Ramesh had on his official Twitter handle posted two videos of the yatra, in which popular songs from KGF-2 film were used without permission. “On perusal of the videos it is clear that all the accused have fraudulently, blatantly and slavishly with an intention of making wrongful gains have unauthorizedly and illegally used the sound recording owned and held by the Complainant,” Kumar alleged.
The court has asked Twitter to take down three tweets posted by Congress handles and temporarily block handles of Congress and Bharat Jodo Yatra; it has asked the defendants to not “unauthorisedly and illegally” use the plaintiff's copyrighted work till the next date of hearing; and ordered the appointment of a commissioner “to inspect and conduct necessary electronic audit and also to seize or preserve the infringing material.”
“I have carefully considered all documents produced along with the plaint also the CD produced by plaintiff by playing the same in court system. Plaintiff has specifically produced CD showing the side by side file i.e., original version of his copyrighted work with that of the illegally synchronized version. These prima facie materials available before this court at this stage establishes that if same is encouraged plaintiff who is in the business of acquiring cinematography films, songs, music albums etc., will be put to irreparable injury and further same leads to encouraging the piracy at large,” the court said.
On the appointment of a commissioner, the court said, “This court is convinced that object of granting an injunction would be defeated by delay if commissioner is not appointed to make local inspection. Accordingly, Sri SN Venkateshmurthy, District System Administrator of Computer Section, Commercial Court, Bengaluru is appointed as Local Commissioner to visit the defendants 1 to 3 website, conduct electronic audit and preserve the infringing materials available in the above social media and prepare inventory of the same and store the same in this court’s system and separate CD.”
It has also allowed the plaintiff’s representatives to accompany the Technical Commissioner and to “take photos or videographs of the commission proceedings.”
The next date of hearing in the case is November 21.
(With inputs from agencies)