Bengaluru Court Orders Twitter to Block Congress’s Twitter Handles Over ‘Copyright Violations’

GG News Bureau

Bengaluru, 8th Nov. A city civil and sessions court on Monday ordered Twitter Inc to temporarily block the Indian National Congress’s social media accounts — https:twitter.com/INCIndia and https:twitter.com/Bharatjodo — until November 21 for using copyrighted sound recordings from the film KGF Chapter-2 in the party’s Bharat Jodo campaign on various social media.

In addition, the Court appointed a Commissioner to visit the websites of the INC, party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Supriya Shrinate, and conduct an electronic audit of social media accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms in order to preserve infringing materials.

Lathakumari M., the 85th Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge (Commercial Disputes), has also temporarily restrained the INC and its leaders, as well as their managers and agents, from illegally using, synchronizing, uploading, storing, and communicating to the public pirated copies of the copyrighted works until the next hearing date on November 21.

The interim order was issued in response to a suit filed by M/S MRT Music, which owns the copyrights to the film KGF Chapter-2’s sound recordings.

The plaintiff company claims that the INC and its leaders violated copyrights by illegally using the film’s sound recordings by affixing the party’s logo on videos uploaded to the INC’s various social media accounts.

The Court considered the documents produced by MRT Music in conjunction with the suit, as well as the CD produced by the company, by playing it in the court system.

“The plaintiff has specifically produced a CD showing the side by side file, i.e., original version of copyrighted work with that of the illegally synchronised version. These prima facie materials available before this court at this stage establishes that if same is encouraged plaintiff who is in the business of acquiring cinematography films, songs, music albums etc., will be put to irreparable injury and further same leads to encouraging the piracy at large if the ex-parte temporary injunction is not granted, the Court stated in its order.

While observing that “the purpose of granting a temporary injunction would be defeated by delay if a Commissioner is not appointed to conduct local inspection,” the Court appointed S.N. Venkateshmurthy, District System Administrator of Computer Section, Commercial Court, Bengaluru, as Commissioner to conduct electronic audit.