Delhi HC restrains over 100 ‘rogue websites’ from streaming Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

The High Court was hearing a lawsuit as well as an application seeking “ex-parte” interim relief moved by Sony Pictures Animation Inc., who claimed that it is the “copyright holder” of the film and has not licensed the right to broadcast or communicate to the public, the said film to any other authorities or websites, except its own.

Justice Shankar, while issuing notice in the application for interim relief, observed, “This Court also finds that, prima facie, the websites at serial Nos. 1 to 101 qualify as ‘rogue websites’ as defined in the said decision. As such, the plaintiff would be entitled to ex-parte interim relief. Issue notice, returnable before the Court on 4th September 2023.”

The High Court further directed internet service providers to “block access” to the websites mentioned in the plea, “as well as any mirror/redirect/alphanumeric websites which appear to be associated with any of the said websites”.

The court further directed the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to issue a notification calling on all internet and telecom service providers to block the access to the websites mentioned in the lawsuit.

The court also issued summons to the respondent websites in the main lawsuit.