Delhi HC summons an American app in copyright infringement case by Yash Raj Films

The American video-sharing app "Triller" was served with a summons and notice by the Delhi High Court on Tuesday in response to a complaint of copyright infringement brought by the Indian production company Yashraj Films.

In order to prevent Triller from exploiting its copyrighted content, Yashraj filed an interim relief application with a single-bench judge, Justice Amit Bansal. Triller allegedly includes an extraction tool that allows users to post audio-visual information or brief movies using Yashraj's works, according to the lawsuit filed by Yashraj.

The plea read: “The defendant illegally uploads, stores, reproduces, makes copies, creates new works embodying 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, without a valid license from the plaintiff.”

The panel set the February 2 hearing date for the matter.

Triller's attorney said that Yashraj and the social media firm have been at odds for a while and that he will abide by their instructions in this matter. The spokesman for Triller further asserted that the social networking site has not disregarded the problem and that it has continued to delete content that infringes on copyright. The lawsuit further alleged that while some of the links specified in the warnings had been taken down, Triller had failed to fulfil its obligation to take them down and that other links had continued to function or had regularly appeared.

The plea stated that the contested 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 disentitle the Defendant from the "safe-harbour" protection guaranteed to intermediaries under the IT Act.