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Journalism of Courage
The Delhi High Court Monday granted ex parte takedown of unauthorised videos allegedly infringing on the personality rights of podcaster and social media influencer Raj Shamani.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Sigh Arora, however, refrained from granting ex parte interim injunction against the use of memes and other content that fall in the category of satire, criticism or parody, while observing that a separate action through a suit must be brought for such content, if maintainable in law, for the court’s adjudication.
Advocate Nakul Gandhi and Senior Advocate Diya Kapur, who represented Shamani, argued that AI-generated deep fakes are misrepresenting the podcaster as recommending a cricket-betting channel. It was also highlighted that certain websites are using his name unauthorisedly to claim that he is available for bookings for corporate events. Further, it was pointed out that there are fake chatbots on Telegram channels where Shamani is purportedly giving advice on cryptocurrency and soliciting funds, as well as chatbots using his image and name.
Kapur also stated that some other YouTube channels are unauthorisedly using Shamani’s content and reposting it, while removing the show’s logo and name, and hiding the show’s name as seen emblazoned on the mics.
The court, by protecting Shamani’s personality rights, has restrained the parties ex parte against such unauthorised use of his content.
While Kapur also detailed that among the infringing acts was the use of Shamani’s trademarked hashtag ‘Figuring Out’, based on the name of his show, Justice Arora orally remarked that it cannot restrain the use of the hashtag ex parte, without hearing the defendants. “You’re a public persona, I think you’ve to give that much leeway,” Justice Arora remarked.
