New Delhi, Jul 25 (LAB) The Delhi High Court recently directed messaging platform companies Telegram and Mega to remove all the illegal/unauthorized content posted or uploaded, or communicated on their platforms belonging to DocTutorials Edutech Private Limited.
Justice Pratibha M Singh on July 14 said, “Taking into consideration the merits of this case, it is directed that whenever unauthorized and illegal content, relating to the copyrighted data or any content using the Plaintiff’s mark, is noticed in any of the channels/websites/URLs hosted by Telegram or Mega, the Plaintiff would be free to issue notice to them. Upon receiving such notice, they shall immediately take down all the illegal/unauthorized content posted or uploaded, or communicated on their platforms within 48 hours, the court said.
The platforms Telegram” and “Mega informed the High Court that due to their platforms being free-to-use cloud services having limited storage, only limited details are required for registration. It is only after the first level of storage is crossed that the same becomes a subscription service and requires further details for registration. Thus, even they were unable to provide identifiable information regarding the infringers sharing the Plaintiff’s copyrighted content
The present suit was instituted by DocTutorials Edutech Private Limited, through advocate Anjali Anchayil. The Plaintiff is an online medical entrance coaching platform providing audio and video medical content, accessible through its website as well as the mobile application.
According to Plaintiff, several unknown persons have been habitually uploading and transmitting video lectures provided by them on publicly accessible platforms. These individuals have been making use of cloud-based messaging platforms including “Telegram” and “Mega” respectively for the purpose of unauthorized distribution of their content.
Despite efforts, Plaintiff could not identify the unknown persons, who were indulging in such illegalities.
Thereafter a suit was filed in the Delhi High Court seeking orders against the said websites, URLs and Telegram channels and urged to block these sites.
The platforms Telegram” through its lawyers Anushka Sharda and Madhav Khosla and defendant “Mega” (a Newzealand based cloud storage company) through its lawyers Mrs. Bindra Rana, Ms. Priya Adlakha, Ms. Rima Mazumdar, Ms. Shilpi Sinha informed the High Court that due to their platforms being free-to-use cloud services having limited storage, only limited details are required for registration. It is only after the first level of storage is crossed that the same becomes a subscription service and requires further details for registration. Thus, even they were unable to provide identifiable information regarding the infringers sharing Plaintiff’s copyrighted content.
The High Court further issued a direction to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) (Defendant No. 3) to block the concerned URLs, and websites, as communicated by Plaintiff from time to time, within 48 hours, which shall be given effect by the ISPs. Ms Nidhi Raman CGSC with advocate Mr Zubin Singh appeared on behalf of DoT. / LAB/SNG/