Recently the case Sun TV v Amazon (2021) (O.A. No.110 of 2021) came up for hearing before the Madras High Court. The facts of the case were, Amazon had exhibited 28 movies in its OTT platform and Sun TV filed a suit claiming that they were the absolute copyright owners of the said movies alleging that Amazon had infringed their rights by exhibiting the movies in its platform, hence...
Recently the case Sun TV v Amazon (2021) (O.A. No.110 of 2021) came up for hearing before the Madras High Court. The facts of the case were, Amazon had exhibited 28 movies in its OTT platform and Sun TV filed a suit claiming that they were the absolute copyright owners of the said movies alleging that Amazon had infringed their rights by exhibiting the movies in its platform, hence praying for permanent injunction against the defendant restraining them from in any manner telecasting or exploiting the movies either through their channel or through any other mode particularly OTT Platforms and the court granted an ad-interim injunction against the defendant. In the meantime, another media house named UIE claimed that it has the absolute copyrights over 7 of the said 28 movies. Amazon has filed its counter affidavit and the main suit is pending final adjudication. Earlier a suit was filed by Sun TV against Amazon and Karmaayug Films Private Limited in the year 2019 on the same cause of action at the Madras High Court (Sun TV Network v Amazon (2019) O.A. 852 of 2019), in this case few films were exhibited on the platform Amazon, for which Sun TV claimed to be the absolute rights holder. Amazon deleted the movies from its platform as soon as summons was served on it and stated that it was only serving as a platform for hosting movies. It is pertinent to note that there are two modes through which movies can be hosted in Amazon, one by Amazon itself by direct purchase of the movie and the other one by third parties, moreover Amazon stated that rarely it acquires the rights of a movie by direct purchase, in most of the cases it only serves as a host for third parties movies but even while serving as a host the platform (Amazon) gets into an agreement with the third party who provides proof of its rights over the film because a film cannot be exploited without rights. Again, Sun TV filed a suit against Amazon at the Madras High Court on the same cause of action (Sun TV vs Amazon CS.No.440 of 2019 & OA.No.698 of 2019), even in this case Amazon removed the movies as soon as the summons was served. Yet another case Sun TV vs Amazon CS.No.439 of 2019 &OA.No.699 of 2019 dealt with the same cause of action and even ended up in the same way.
The Madras High Court in the case M/S. Asianet Communications Ltd vs Sun T.V.Network Limited 23 November, 2016 dealt with similar issue wherein both Sun T.V and Asianet claimed to have the rights of the film "AHAM". Sun TV claimed to have purchased the rights of the film from M/s.Colonia Communications and Asianet claimed to have purchased the rights from Sridhisai Creations. The court framed two issues as follows "This leads us to the question as to who is the producer of the said film and which one of the two had the rights to assign and the next issue as to whether Sree Sankara Arts also had the right to assign in favour of Sun T.V. seven years later (emphasis supplied) "the court eventually decided in favour of Asianet stating that Asianet has obtained the Copyright of the said film in a manner which is most acceptable in law and highly possible in facts, relying on the principle of preponderance of probabilities. The court also held that "It is axiomatic that Sun T.V. which has got the right after multiple telecasts by Asianet in a seven years span period, cannot be held to have obtained a valid telecasting rights of the said film" but the court never went into fundamental issues.
In all these cases a larger pertinent issue was left undecided and untouched by the courts. A cursory reading of the facts of these cases would reveal that two persons had the rights for one film. The question that arises patently is whether a producer, who is the author and first owner of the Copyright of a Cinematographic film as per sec 2(d)(v) and Sec 17 of the Copyright Act of 1957 can grant the copyrights in a film to two assignees? Assuming for the sake of argument, that the answer is no, logically it would have been impermissible for a Producer to grant the copyrights of the same film to two persons in which case naturally, claims could not have been made by either party.
This question also has a legal implication concerning the interpretation of Sec 18 of the Copyright Act which deals with the assignment of copyright, it states that "The owner of the copyright in an existing work or the prospective owner of the copyright in a future work may assign to any person the copyright either wholly or partially and either generally or subject to limitations and either for the whole term of the copyright or any part thereof" meaning that the assignment of the entire copyright can be made only to a single person. Hence, is it legally permissible under the sec 18 of the Copyright Act to grant the absolute rights of the same film to two persons? Though the question is still unanswered, this has been the practice in the Film industry especially for old movies. Suits are repeatedly filed on the same cause of action which has led to multiple litigations in Courts of law, wherein the claiming parties pray for injunctions against the other party to prevent them from exhibiting or exploiting the film. If the court answers the question, then it would operate as Res judicata which will reduce multiple litigations. The Hon'ble Madras High Court is provided with the opportunity once again in Sun TV v Amazon (2021) (O.A. No. 110 of 2021) to answer the question and eventually declare the law on claims vis-à-vis Copyright.
The author is an Advocate, practising in Madras High Court. Views are personal .