ANI Files Copyright Infringement Suit Against PTI In Delhi High Court, Seeks 2 Crores For Alleged Plagiarism Of Videos

News agency ANI Media Private Limited has filed a copyright infringement suit before the Delhi High Court against Press Trust of India (PTI) alleging that its content has been plagiarised by the latter.

Justice Mini Pushkarna heard the matter today and issued summons in the suit.

ANI has accused PTI of illegally reproducing a video shot by its cameraperson on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The video, ANI claims, has been shot by its cameraperson as an interview with a passenger on a flight from New Delhi to Darbhanga. The passengers were made to wait in the aircraft for a substantial amount of time without air-conditioning in peak heatwave conditions.

“The Shorter Original Video was illegally reproduced by Defendant No. 1 on its social media account on the platform 'X'. Thereafter, Defendant No. 1 also illegally reproduced the Full Original Video on its syndicated newsfeed. The Second Infringing Video is identical to the Full Original Video including the interview conducted on behalf of the Plaintiff,” ANI alleges.

Senior Advocate Chander M Lal appearing for ANI told the court that PTI has published the copyrighted work illegally and used the same wrongly. Advocate Siddhant Kumar also appeared for ANI. ANI has accused PTI of “stealing its feed.”

On the other hand, Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao appearing for PTI submitted that the news agency is willing to take down the impugned videos within 24 hours, without prejudice to its rights and contentions.

Although the court was willing to refer the parties to the mediation, Justice Pushkarna was told that both the sides will talk amongst themselves.

The matter will now be heard on August 09.

ANI has sought a permanent and mandatory injunction against PTI to take down the Infringing Videos and further to restrain it from publishing and circulating any original, copyright content of ANI on X.

ANI has also sought monetary compensation of Rs. 2 crores and 10 lakhs for the damages suffered on account of the copyright infringement by PTI.

Title: ANI v. PTI & Anr.