Delhi High Court Restrains Rogue Websites From Screening ICC Cricket World Cup Matches

The Delhi High Court has restrained nine rogue websites from screening or disseminating any part of the ICC World Cup cricket matches on any electronic or digital platform.

“Rogue websites, which in the past have indulged in piracy of copyrighted content, are very likely to continue communicating copyrighted works to the public during the currency of World Cup 2023. Thus, there is a need to restrain any rogue websites from disseminating and communicating to the public any part of the cricket match events without authorisation or license from the Plaintiffs,” Justice Prathiba M Singh said.

World Cup 2023 will be held in India from October 05 to November 19. The event will include a total of 48 one-day matches.

The court was dealing with a suit filed by Star India Private Limited and Novi Digital Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. seeking to restrain illegal dissemination and broadcast of matches or parts in the World Cup event.

Passing the ad-interim injunction order, Justice Singh said that the World Cup cricket matches are extremely popular, especially in the Indian subcontinent, and that the sporting event is telecasted on Star Sports’s channels as well as the OTT platform ‘Disney+ Hotstar’.

“The said channels and OTT platform are also accessible on PCs, smart phones, tablets and other electronic devices. The rights of these events have been procured by the Plaintiffs after substantial monetary investment and the illegal dissemination, telecast or broadcast of these sporting events on any websites or platforms would create a severe dent in the revenues of the Plaintiffs. Moreover, there are rights in the footage, commentary and various other elements which are put together to create the broadcast itself which is fully protectable under the Copyright Act, 1957,” the court said.

It added that the rogue websites, which in the past had also indulged in piracy of copyrighted content, are likely to continue communicating copyrighted works to the public during the World Cup 2023.

“Thus, there is a need to restrain any rogue websites from disseminating and communicating to the public any part of the cricket match events without authorisation or license from the Plaintiffs,” the court said.

Justice Singh ordered that the rogue websites be suspended. The court directed the Union Government to also issue blocking orders regarding the websites.

“If any website, which is not primarily an infringing website, is blocked in pursuance of the present order, it is permitted to approach the Court by giving an undertaking that it does not intend to do any illegal dissemination of the ICC World Cup of the content over which the Plaintiffs have rights and the Court would consider modifying the injunction accordingly,” the court said.

The matter will now be heard on October 18.

Advocates Sidharth Chopra, Sneha Jain, Yatinder Garg, Raunak Das Sharma and Rimjhim Tiwari appeared for the plaintiffs.

CGSC Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar along with Advocates Srish Kumar Mishra, Sagar Mehlawat and Alexander Mathai Paikaday appeared for defendants.

Case Title: STAR INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED & ANR. v. JIOLIVE.TV & ORS.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 910

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