Court orders ‘rogue’ websites to restrain from streaming Brahmastra ahead of its release this week

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Ahead of the release of Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva, the court has restrained the illegal streaming of the movie by several ‘rouge’ websites with a motive to curb piracy. An ex parte interim order was passed by Justice Jyoti Singh on the lawsuit filed by the co-producers of the upcoming film, Star India Pvt Ltd. It was noted that the availability of the film online while the film is still in theatres or even closer to the dates of the film in theatres, would seriously affect the producers financially and the value of the film. 

“There is no gain in saying that piracy has to be curbed and needs to be dealt with a heavy hand and an injunction against the screening of copyrighted content by rogue websites ought to be granted… Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for a grant of ex parte ad interim relief,” the court order dated September 2 stated.

“Defendants No. 1 to 18 (rogue websites) and all others acting for and/or on their behalf are restrained from in any manner hosting, streaming, retransmitting, exhibiting, making available for viewing and downloading, providing access to and/or communicating to the public, displaying, uploading, modifying, publishing, updating and/or sharing on their websites through the internet or any other platform, the film ‘Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva’ and contents related thereto, so as to infringe the Plaintiff’s copyright therein, till the next date of hearing,” the court added.

“Looking at the investments made by the plaintiff in the production and promotion of the film as also the exclusive right vested in it under the provisions of the Copyright Act, this Court prima facie agrees with the plaintiff that if the rogue websites communicate the film in any manner, on any platform, simultaneously with the theatrical release of the film on 09.09.2022 or in its close proximity thereafter, it would severely impact the interest of the plaintiff monetarily and will also erode the value of the film,” it further said.