The Delhi High Court has restrained private individuals from unauthorised circulation of Salman Khan's film Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai through WhatsApp of any other platform. Illegal circulation of the film involves unauthorised storing, reproducing, communicating, disseminating, circulating, copying, selling, offering for sale or making its copies available.
The Court also directed WhatsApp to suspend any accounts that illegally circulate the pirated copies of the film. The interim order, passed by Justice Sanjeev Narula was passed for the Zee Entertainment Enterprises vs Tajendra Modi & Ors case.
Zee Entertainment approached the court after it came to their knowledge that illegal copies of the film were being disseminated for private and public viewing, on various social media applications including WhatsApp. The plaintiff argued that copyright infringement or violation of intellectual property rights went against the WhatsApp Terms of Service.
It was earlier reported that Zee5 has the exclusive rights for Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai. The Prabhu Deva directorial opted for a simultaneous release on OTT, leading DTH services, and select theatres, especially since a majority of the theatres in India shut down due to COVID-19 restrictions. Radhe released on 13 May on Zee5's pay-per-view service ZeePlex.
Taking the WhatsApp communications, presented as evidence, into consideration, the Court observed, "These messages clearly suggest that these particular accounts in question, are ex facie being used in complete violation of the terms of the policy of Defendant No. 9 and are infringing the copyright of the Plaintiff."
The Court further ordered, "Accordingly, till the next date of hearing, Defendant Nos. 1 to 8 and 13, their servants, agents, legal representatives, heirs and any other person acting for or on their behalf are restrained from unauthorisedly storing, reproducing, communicating, disseminating, circulating, copying, selling, offering for sale or making available copies of the film or any other portion thereof, through WhatsApp or any other means or modes, that may infringe the Plaintiff’s copyright in the film."
The Court also directed Defendant 9 (WhatsApp LLC) to suspend the infringing accounts and must do the same to any other accounts that are brought to its notice by the plaintiff.
On 14th May, 2021, Zee Entertainment had filed a complaint at the Maharashtra Cyber Digital Crime Unit under the Copyright Act 1957. A similar complaint was later filed before the Commissioner of Police, Central Region, Cyber Cell, a day later.
On 14 May, Salman Khan had issued a statement on social media that read, "We offered you to watch our film Radhe at a reasonable price of INR 249 per view. Inspite of that pirated sites are streaming Radhe illegally which is a serious crime." Before the film's release, he'd shared a video wherein he urged his fans to watch Radhe through the proper channels.
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