From infringing the copyright of Tamil film
The Madras High Court has granted interim injunction for two weeks restraining Internet service providers from infringing the copyright of the Tamil film ‘Mirattal’.
Passing the order on an application in a civil suit, Justice R. Subbiah ordered notice.
The applicant also sought a John Doe order to cover all unknown persons to block all URL (Unique Resource Locator) carrying the image of the film, except the trailer and the songs in the Internet medium.
[A John Doe order or Ashok Kumar order, as it is known in India, is a restraint order against unknown or anonymous persons who may be committing breach of the plaintiff’s rights].
Rs. 7-crore venture
In the application, Metronet Multimedia Private Ltd., Egmore, represented by its authorised signatory J. Jayakumar stated that the production of the film began in September 2010 and it was completed in May this year. The producer had spent Rs. 7 crore.
He apprehended that many unknown persons had the propensity to pirate the original version of the film and distribute it to the audience worldwide through various devices, including the reproduction of the film in the Internet through various websites.
There was no machinery to check the blatant copying of the original work.
The film was to be released on August 2, the producer said. The infringement that may be made by unknown persons could be checked only by blocking the URL, which is an address that points to the resource from which the Internet was transmitting information.
