Sun TV moves HC to prevent illegal release on Net

With Rajinikanth’s much-anticipated film Annaatthe to be released on Diwali, Sun TV Network Ltd (applicant) has knocked on the doors of the Madras High Court to ensure that the film does not illegally gets leaked into the Web. Sun Pictures, a division of Sun TV Network, is the film’s producer.

The applicant filed a petition seeking an injunction to restrain the film from being illegally posted on websites. It is worrying that the film is likely to be published on about 3,500 illegal websites. If this happens, it could cause considerable losses to the applicant.

The applicant urged the High Court to restrain 37 respondents/defendants, including mobile operators, from infringing the cinematographic film Annaatthe and to block all websites/web pages.

HC direction to ISPs
Madras High Court Judge G Jayachandran, who heard the case on Friday, ordered websites and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to ban the illegal release of the film on the Web.

On earlier occasions, more than 2,000 such domains containing a newly created suffix and prefix certain websites remain blocked on the Safari, Chrome mobile browser, but are not blocked on other mobile browsers such as Tizen. Another website, “Thop.tv” is also a notorious infringing website that creates extensions using Google Chrome and circulates android apps through private sharing. The petition said they made several extensions that have become a perennial problem in notifying Google to take those extensions down.

“I submit that the main purpose of these websites is to host infringing content, and thus these websites should be blocked in their entirety,” the petition said.

Annaatthe, starring Rajinikanth, Nayanthara, Keerthy Suresh, Meena, Kushboo, and directed by Siva, is scheduled for release on November 4. The applicant has invested a substantial sum of money in the film’s production, and the same is slated to be released on more than 3,000 screens worldwide.

Trailers garner over 8 million views
The trailers/teaser and promotion of the film have been released to the general public on October 14 on YouTube, and the said film has already garnered 8.4 million views. The applicant being the producer of the said film, is the sole person who has the right to bring, extend or defend any proceedings related to the infringement in respect of the film, the petition said. The Hindu Business Line