Delhi High Court Restrains 'Rogue App' From Streaming Star's Contents

Star Channels filed the suit for a permanent injunction against King's Pro+ app and related websites (defendant no.1) for allegedly making Star's original content available for download.

Star Channels owns and operates 'Disney+ Hotstar' and claims to have exclusive rights over the contents. Star claims that King's app is an illegal mobile application and has no permission to reproduce, store or make Hotstar's content available for viewing as it has exclusive rights over it.

Star contends that the primary intent of King's app is to exploit various copyright-protected works of its content and to provide an alternative to legitimate sources. Star thus argues that King's app is liable for infringement of its copyright works under Section 51(a)(ii), Section 51(b) and Section 51(a)(i) of the Copyright Act.

Considering the facts of the case, Justice Amit Bansal was of the view that Star made a prima facie case in its favour and that the balance of convenience lies with it.

The Court thus restrained the King's app from hosting, streaming, distributing or making available to the public any of Star's copyrighted contents, shows or programmes.

Name Cheap Inc. (defendant no.2) is a domain name registrar, which provided domain name registration to King. The Court directed Name Cheap Inc. to lock and suspend the domain name registration of King's associated rogue websites, its URLs and UIs.

It also directed it to disclose details of King including name, address, IP address and details of any other websites which are infringing Star's contents. Further, mode of payment along with payment details used for registration of domain name by King's owner.

The Court further directed various Telecom Services Providers (defendants no. 3 to 11) to block access to the infringing websites/apps.

It directed the Department of Telecommunications (defendant no. 12) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (defendant no. 13) to issue notifications to various internet and telecom service providers registered under them to block the infringing websites.

It further directed PayPal Payment Private Limited (defendant no. 14) to freeze the account of King's owner.

The Court listed the matter on 27 February 2025.

Case title: Star India Private Limited vs. Tajkir Mohammad Tanvir (King's Pro+) And Ors.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 1201

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