Delhi High Court Restrains Rogue Websites from Streaming India's Cricket Matches on Plea by Viacom18

Delhi High Court Restrains Rogue Websites from Streaming India's Cricket Matches on Plea by Viacom18

Inundated with similar petitions, it advised the legislature to formulate a policy to avoid such disputes coming to the courts

The Delhi High Court has granted an injunction in favor of Viacom18 and restrained rogue websites from illegally streaming Indian cricket matches whose broadcasting and media rights rest with Viacom 18, which owns Jio Cinema.

In the Viacomm 18 Media Private Limited v Live.smartcric.com & Ors case, Justice C Hari Shankar ordered the blocking of eight websites named by Viacom and asked the Domain Name Registrars (DNRs) and the Central government to block other offending websites which the broadcasting giant may communicate to them in future.

Viacom had stated in its plea that through a 12 September 2023 agreement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), it held exclusive global media rights for streaming/transmitting events conducted by the BCCI over television and digital media. It added that it held the broadcasting and media rights for all the bilateral matches of the Indian cricket team to be held in India till March 2028.

The suit mentioned eight rogue websites engaged in streaming and broadcasting the recently concluded Asia Cup 2023 and other cricket matches. It stated that such transmission amounted to infringement of Viacom’s exclusive copyright.

The bench observed that it was common knowledge that rogue websites were launched before such events and they streamed and broadcasted the events over which others held the copyright.

Thus, Justice Shankar ordered, “This court finds itself inundated with suits seeking protection against such websites, which keep cropping up every now and then. It may be useful for the legislature to formulate a policy by which such disputes can avoid taking up the time of the courts.”

He further stated that the plaintiff made out a prima facie case for the grant of interim relief and passed injunction orders against the rogue websites. The judge also directed the DNRs to suspend the domain names and disclose their complete details and ordered the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to the websites.

The order read, “To facilitate implementation of the aforesaid directions, defendants 24 and 25 (Department of Technology and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) are directed to issue a notification, calling on internet and telecom service providers registered under the said defendants, to block access to the aforesaid websites identified by the plaintiff and enumerated in the serial No.1 in the documents annexed to the plaint.”

Viacom 18 was represented by advocates Saikrishna Rajgopal, Sidharth Chopra, Sneha Jain, Yatinder Garg, Akshay Maloo, and Priyansh Kohli.