The American video-sharing app “Triller” received a summons and notice from the Delhi High Court on Tuesday in connection with a complaint of copyright infringement brought by Yash Raj Films.
In order to prevent Triller from exploiting its copyrighted content, Yash Raj filed an interim relief application with a single-bench court, Justice Amit Bansal, who was hearing it.
In its lawsuit, Yash Raj has claimed that Triller has an extraction tool that allowed users to post audio-visual content or short videos using Yash Raj’s works.
The plea stated: “Without a valid licence from the plaintiff, the defendant unlawfully uploads, stores, reproduces, makes copies, creates new works incorporating the plaintiff’s works, commercially exploits, communicates to the public, makes a sound recording in respect of the plaintiff’s works, adapts, modifies, synchronises and/or otherwise exploits or permits the aforesaid acts by users of the impugned platforms.”
The panel set the February 2 hearing date for the issue.
Triller’s lawyer claims that Yash Raj and the social media firm have been at odds for a while, and that Triller would go by their instructions in this matter.
Triller’s representative further claimed that the social networking platform has not ignored the issue and continues to remove content that violates copyright.
The lawsuit further claimed that even though some of the links mentioned in the warnings had been removed, Triller had not successfully complied with its takedown duty and that other of the links had persisted in being active or had appeared repeatedly.
“It is also pertinent to note that the impugned platforms contain various features, such as the audio extraction feature, which are beyond the limited role of an intermediary specified under Section 79 (2)(a) of the IT Act, thereby disentitling the Defendant from the ‘safe-harbour’ protection guaranteed to intermediaries under the IT Act,” the plea stated.
