Stop sharing TOI e-paper, HC tells WhatsApp

Stop sharing TOI e-paper, HC tells WhatsApp

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:24.05.2021

The Delhi high court has restrained social messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram from illegally circulating e-papers of The Times of India and sister publication Navbharat Times on their platform.

The HC issued notice to the two apps along with certain other individuals who are administrators of various groups on the platforms while barring them from circulating the e-papers on account of alleged copyright violations.

Justice Jayant Nath said “prima facie” the act of illegally circulating the e-papers of plaintiff on the defendants’ platforms is violative of its copyright and ad-interim injunction is granted in the favour of Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd. The court asked them to respond to the suit and comply with the order, listing the matter for further hearing on August18.

‘Circulating e-papers is violation of Copyright law’

In its order, the HC has also issued notice to the ministry of electronics and information technology for its response on the suit. In its plea, BCCL contended that e-papers of Times of India and Navbharat Times are being circulated on various WhatsApp groups and Telegram without any authority and this amounts to infringement of its copyright.

“That despite the various measures taken by the plaintiff to protect its proprietary site content, it has been recently observed that under the garb of providing online services, various web portals, mobile applications, intermediaries, social media platforms and their users, are misusing and perpetuating the misuse of the e-newspapers and e- magazines of the Plaintiff, by sharing unauthorized and illegal copies of the same in PDF format to/among their own users or subscribers on different platforms such as websites and mobile applications, etc. The foregoing actions by such web portals, mobile applications, social media platforms and their users necessitate the filing of the instant suit so as to protect against and prevent the infringement of its proprietary information/content,” it added.

The court was informed that ever since lockdown was imposed in 2020 to contain the spread of Covid-19, several individuals started downloading the e-papers and circulated it, which is a violation of Copyright law.