HBO vs Invisible Pirates: Delhi High Court blocks 30 websites illegally streaming content

The order added, “The role of the ISP or the DNR is only to the extent of the technical verification. If at the plaintiffs’ request a website is technically found to be a mirror, alphanumeric, redirect website of the defendant websites, the concerned ISP and/or DNR is required to enforce the ad-interim injunction granted by the present order.”

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani heard a matter over HBO’s copyrighted content being streamed by defendant websites.

HBO vs Invisible pirates

HBO’s case is that while the DNRs of the websites are known, the actual owners or operators of these websites have hidden their identities through privacy protection services. This has made it impossible for HBO to proceed with legal action against the true operator.

Saikrishna Rajagopal, the counsel appearing for HBO, submitted that the websites (No 1-30) are ‘rogue websites’ that are carrying motion pictures produced by HBO without any license or other authority. Rajagopal submitted that websites are carrying, broadcasting, webcasting, or streaming movies sometimes immediately upon release and sometimes even before release, in flagrant violation of the copyright of the production house, namely HBO.

The counsel appearing on behalf of the defendant websites submitted that they have no hesitation in blocking the rogue websites referred to in the plaint. 

’30 websites violating copyright’

The court observed that the 30 websites appeared to be flagrantly indulging in copyright violation. It noted that the website owners’ details were masked and were not traceable, and the content being made available was unlicensed cinematographic work of HBO.

The court held that this was not a case of incidental infringement but one where the primary purpose of the websites appears to be facilitating infringement of HBO’s copyrights.

The court noted that under the law, for an intermediary such as an ISP or a DNR to enjoy‘safe harbour’ protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, they must operate in a strictly neutral manner. They cannot block websites just because a party, like HBO, asks them to. It also clarified that in a given case, if an ISP/DNR can approach the court if it believes that a website should not be blocked despite HBO’s request.