Full affidavit copy of நடிகர் ரஜினிகாந்த் நடித்த அண்ணாதே படம் : 6455 இணையதளம் வெளியிட அண்ணாதே திரைப்படம் தடை. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS (Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction) O.A. No. of 2021 in C.S. (Comm Div) No. of 2021 Sun TV Network Ltd. Murasoli Maran Towers Represented by its Authorised Sign
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
(Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction)
O.A. No. of 2021
in
C.S. (Comm Div) No. of 2021
Sun TV Network Ltd.
Murasoli Maran Towers
Represented by its Authorised Signatory
- Jyothi Basu
73, MRC Nagar Main Road
MRC Nagar
Chennai – 600 028 …Applicant/ Plaintiff
Vs
1.Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited,
Bharat Sanchar Bhavan,
Harish Chandra Mathur Lane,
Janpath, New Delhi-110 001.
2.Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd
5th Floor, Mahanagar Doorsanchar Sadan,
9, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road,New Delhi 110003
3.Bharti Airtel Limited
Bharti Crescent, 1, Nelson Mandela Road,
Vasant Kunj, Phase II,
New Delhi – 110 070
4.Aircel Cellular Limited,
5th Floor, Spencer Plaza,
769 Anna Salai,
Chennai – 600002.
5.Hathway Cable & Datacom Limited,
4th Floor, “Rahejas”,
Main Avenue, Santacruz (W),
Mumbai – 400054.
6.Excitel Broadband Pvt. Ltd.
O-2, 2nd Floor, Lajpat Nagar II
New Delhi – 110024,
7.Vodafone India Limited,
Peninsula Corporate Park,
Ganpatrao Kadam Marg,
Lower Parel, Mumbai – 400 013.
8.Idea Cellular Limited,
Suman Tower, Plot No. 18,
Sector 11, Gandhinagar,
Gujarat – 382 011.
9.Reliance Communications Infrastructure Limited,
Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City,
Navi Mumbai 400709.
10.Tata Teleservices Ltd,
2 A, Old Ishwar Nagar,
Main Mathura Road,
New Delhi -110065
11.Syscon Infoway Pvt. Ltd.
402, fourth floor, skyline icon,
Andheri Kurla Road, Behind Mittal ind. estate,
Andheri east, Mumbai-400059.
12.GTPL Hathway Ltd.
202, 2nd Floor,Sahajanand
Shopping Center, Opp.
Swaminarayan Temple,
Shahibaugh,
Ahmedabad – 380004
13.Tikona Digital Networks Private Limited,
202, 2nd Floor,Sahajanand
Shopping Center, Opp.
Swaminarayan Temple,
Shahibaugh,
Ahmedabad – 380004
14.BG Broadband India Private Limited,
Plot No. 54, Marol Industrial Cooperative Area,
Off Andheri Kurla Road,
Andheri(East), Mumbai – 400059.
15.Sify Technologies Limited,
2nd Floor, ‘TIDEL PARK’,
No. 4, Canal Bank Road,
Chennai – 600 113.
16.Siti Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd
B – 10, Lawrence Road, Industrial Area,
New Delhi North West
Delhi – 110035
17.You Broadband & Cable India Ltd,
2nd and 3rd Floor, IQARA Centre,
Near Gujarat Gas Circle,
Adajan-Hazaria Road,
Surat – 395009
18.Asianet Satellite Communications,
2A, II floor, Leela Infopark,
Technopark Limited, Kazhakkoottam,
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala – 695581.
19.Data Infosys Limited,
Station Road, Durgapura,
Jaipur 30.
20.Readylink internet Services Limited,
Galaxy, Plot no 7, Sakhthi Colony,
RK Puram, Ganpathy,
Coimbatore – 641006.
21.Opto Network Private Limited
B-86, Sector-14
Noida-201301
Uttar Pradesh
India
22.Nettlinx Limited,
5-9-22, 3rd floor,
My Home Sarovar Plaza,
Secretariat Road, Saifabad,
Hyderabad-500004
23.City Online Services Limited,
701, 7th Floor,
Aditya Trade Center, Ameerpet,
Hyderabad-500 038.
24.Pioneer eLabs Limited,
Pioneer Towers, 7th Floor,
Plot No.16, Survey No.64,
Software Unit Layout,
APIIk, i-Tech City, Madhapur,
Hyderabad: 500080.
25.AT&T Global Network Service India Pvt. Ltd.,
13th floor, 1305-06, Mohan Dev House,
13, Tolstoy Marg,
New Delhi-110 001.
26.Nextgen Communications Limited
Thachil Complex,
No 10, 3rd floor, Raja Annamalai Road,
Saibaba Mission Post,
Coimbatore – 641011, .
27.Virgo Global Media Limited,
101, Achyuth Mazar, H.No.: 7-1-621/48,
S.R. Nagar, Hyderabad,
Telangana 500038
28.Southern Online Bio Technologies Limited,
Flat no. A3, 3rd floor, office block,
Samrat Complex, Saifabad,
Hyderabad-500004
29.MyNet Services India Private Limited,
#12, I floor, IV cross,
Gandhipuram, Pallipalayam
Erode-638006.
30.Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd,
9th Floor, Maker Chambers – IV,
222, Nariman Point, Mumbai – 400 021,
31.Limras Eronet Broadband Services Private Limited,
Doshi Towers, First Floor
#156, Poonamalle High Road,
Kilpauk, Chennai-600 010
32.RS Broadband Service India Private Limited,
No. 18/7, First Floor , Postal Colony 2ndStreet
WestMambalam,
Chennai 600 033
33.Spectra ISP Networks Pvt. Ltd.
Plot No. 21-22, 3rd Floor
Udyog Vihar, Phase IV,
Gurgaon – 122 015.
34.Pulse Telesystems Private Limited,
51/52, Real Towers,
3rd Floor,Royapettah High Road,
Mylapore, Chennai – 600004.
35.Essel Shyam Communications Ltd.
1121, Hemkunt Chambers, 11th Floor,
89 Nehru Place New Delhi-110 019
36.Five Network Solution (I) Ltd.
22/2, Plot No 275-B,
Gurunanak School Compond,
Sion (West), Mumbai 400 022.
37.Atria Convergence Technologies Private Limited
Indian Express Building,
No.1, 2nd Floor,
Queen’s Road, Bengaluru – 560 001,
Karnataka
Also at
No. 17 / 68, Chevalier Shivaji Ganesan Street
New Colony, T. Nagar
Chennai 600017. …. Respondents 1 to 37/Defendants 1 to 37
AFFIDAVIT OF M.JYOTHIBASU
I, M. JyothiBasu s/o. P. Murugesan, aged about 54 years, working at Murasoli Maran Towers 73, MRC Nagar Main Road, MRC Nagar, Chennai – 600028, do hereby solemnly affirm and sincerely state as follows
- I submit that I am the authorised Signatory of the applicant herein and the plaintiff in the main suit, as such I am well aware and acquainted with the facts of the case.
- I submit and pray that this Honourable court may be pleased to treat the plaint as part and parcel of this affidavit.
- I state that the Applicant is a reputed production house and film studio involved in the business of production, acquisition, co-production, promotion, marketing and distribution of various cinematographic films / motion pictures and audio-visual content in various Indian languages, in multiple formats worldwide including but not limited to; theatrical, television syndication, digital and Internet connected platforms. Some of the well-known motion pictures produced and/or distributed by the Plaintiff include the movie, Kanchana 2, Inga Enna Solluthu, Kutti Puli, Vedi, Mankatha, Sarkar, Petta, and Kanchana 3, Namam Veetu Pillai to name a few.
- I state that the Applicant is the producer of the cinematograph film titled “Annaatthe” in Tamil language, starring Rajinikanth, Nayanthara, KeerthySuresh, Meena, Kushboo and others, directed by Siva (hereinafter referred to as “said Film”)which is scheduled for release on 04.11.2021 . The Applicant has invested substantial sum of money in the production of the said Film and the same is slated to be released in more than 3,000 screens worldwide. The trailers/teaser and promotion of the said Film have been released to the general public on 14th October, 2021 in YouTube and the said Film has already garnered 8.4 Millions views. The Applicant being the producer of the said film is the sole person who has the right to bring, extend or defend any proceedings related to the infringement in respect of the Film. The Applicant being the producer, has the sole exploitation rights of the said Film under the provisions of Copyright Act, 1957 as amended in 2012 vide the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012.
- I state that the respondents 1 to 37, the internet services providers across the world are involved in activities of recording, camcording and reproducing the audio songs, audio-visual clips, audio-visual songs and full cinematographic films that are screened in theatres and then copying / reproducing them through various medium including but not limited to CDs, DVDs, VCDs, Blu-ray Discs, computer hard drives, pen drives, etc and distribute the same for selling at a meagre sum to the general public without any leave or authorisation of the production houses/copyright holders/right holders such as the Applicant herein. Such activities result in heavy loss and damage to production houses/copyright holders/right holders such as the Applicant herein.
- I state that the web pages and websites (including their prefix / suffix) which provide such links are also multifarious and are disbursed all over the globe. Such websites are allowed to be viewed in India through various internet service providers such as Respondents 1-37 herein. As per the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012, the Applicant is permitted to seek an order from this Hon’ble Court directing ISPs including but not limited to those listed as the Respondents 1-37 and any other person and/or entity infringing the Applicant’s rights herein to block access to those websites which are hosting the complete Film, audio songs, audio-visual clips and audio-visual songs of the said Film (hereinafter referred to as “said Work”), without knowledge, consent or authorisation from the Applicant herein.
- I submit that the extensive list of websites in Schedule A consist of Non-Compliant websites. There is a distinction to be made when comparing these websites to other websites that such as YouTube that host primarily legitimate content and have a reporting and “take down” mechanism in place, with respect to any infringing content. The list of websites provided in Schedule A primarily host infringing content. When only URL’s for specific links of these websites in question are blocked, these Non-Compliant Websites merely create mirror websites by changing an insignificant part of the URL and are therefore able to reinstate the infringing material with minimal effort. Also, some of these websites, create an entirely new domain after they see a drop-in viewership traffic to their website. These websites create new domains with prefix and suffix to their early website and create a totally entire new domain, apart from what is mentioned in the schedule “A” hereunder, due to which the internet service providers refuse to block the such newly created websites with prefix and suffix. On earlier occasions they have created more than 2,000 such domains containing a newly created suffix and prefix certain websites remain blocked on the safari, chrome mobile browser, but are not blocked on other mobile browsers such as Tizen. Finally, another website “Thop.tv” is also a notorious infringing website that creates extensions using Google Chrome and circulate android apps through private sharing. They create several extensions where it has become a perennial problem in notifying Google to take those extensions down. I submit that the main purpose of these websites is to host infringing content, and thus these websites should be blocked in their entirety. Furthermore, the websites that are listed in Schedule A do not have any sort of “take- down” mechanism whereby copyright holders can notify the website of a user who has posted content that infringes their Copyright. Additionally, in the past, requests to take down certain infringing content by Copyright Holders have fallen on deaf ears.
- I state that the Applicant reasonably apprehends that the websites mentioned in Schedule A have the potential to upload and/or enable third parties to copy, reproduce, distribute, display through cable or online medium of the Applicant’s copyright protected said Film and said Work through the ISPs. The Applicant out of abundant caution and to protect its interests is in the process of issuing notices to the websites/URL’s including the websites mentioned in Schedule A. The Respondents have not entered into any license agreement with the Applicant for communicating the movie and thus it amounts to infringement of Applicant’s copyright under Ss. 14(1) (d) read with Section 16 of Copyright Act, 1957.
- I state that the present suit is being instituted as a quiatimet action on account of reasonably apprehended acts of infringement. Unless the Respondents are restrained from such unauthorised transmission, communication of the said Film and said Work, public interest would also suffer on account of poor quality of the said Film and said Work communicated to them by the Respondents. Further, unless the Respondents are restrained as prayed for, other persons with whom the Applicant had entered into agreements for the purpose of marketing, promotion, exploitation, communication etc., would also suffer huge financial losses and be encouraged to communicate Applicant’s said Film and said Work without making agreed payments to the Applicant.
- I state that the Applicant has prima facie case for grant of ad-interim / temporary injunction in its favour. The Applicant is the producer and the first owner of the copyright in the cinematographic film “Annaatthe”. The Respondents herein, on the other hand, have no right whatsoever to copy, reproduce, record or in any manner communicate or allow others to communicate the Applicant’s copyright protected cinematographic work “Annaatthe”. The Respondents have not entered into any agreement with the Applicant herein in respect of communication of the cinematographic film / motion picture to the general public through any medium including online medium through uploads and downloads. The Applicant has further proved that the Respondents prepare poor copies of the film / motion picture and disburse it among general public in consequence whereof the reputation and goodwill of the Applicant is tremendously prejudiced. The balance of convenience is also in favour of the Applicant. The Applicant has shown reasonable cause for the present action based on the past experience with such unnamed and unidentified pirates who have time and again involved in such nefarious and infringing activities causing enormous loss to the business of the Applicant. Unless an order of injunction as prayed for is granted, the Applicant would be put to enormous loss and prejudice not only to its business but also to the goodwill and reputation of the forthcoming motion picture “Annaatthe”. On the other hand, the Respondents would not be prejudiced with the present application.
It is therefore prayed that that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to grant an order of ad- interim injunction restraining the Respondents / Defendants 1 to 37 from infringing the cinematographic film “Annaatthe” and said Work be directed to block all websites/web pages and future websites that would be created(including their prefix and suffix) including their names along with those Non-Compliant websites mentioned in Schedule-A or any newer websites that have been created, and to block all mobile applications like “Telegram”, and websites that create extensions on popular browsers like “Thop TV” and including those websites mentioned in Schedule-A hosting contents that relate to Plaintiff’s copyright protected cinematographic film “Annaatthe” in any manner, and websites that create extensions on popular browsers , block all websites on Safari, Chrome and Tizen mobile browsers respectively, thereby restraining the unauthorised copying, transmission, communication or make available or display or release or show or upload or download or exhibit or play and/or in any manner communicate in and /or through their services immediate of receipt of details of such infringing websites/web pages in writing, pending disposal of the suit.
Solemnly affirmed at Chennai,
this the 20th day of October
2021and the deponent signed
his name in my presence
Before me,
Advocate, Chennai.
