Director has sought Madras high court assistance to stop release online
Piracy has been recognised as unwarranted phenomenon in the film industry.
Chennai: Apprehending the release of his latest flick O Kadal Kanmani online, acclaimed film director Mani Ratnam has approached Madras high court seeking direction to prevent streaming of the film in the Internet. The tech savvy director, a partner in Madras Talkies, which produced the film, has sought the assistance of the court to halt his movie from streaming on online portals.
Mani Ratnam said that the film hit the silver screen on April 17. Unidentified persons may copy the film and stream it on websites including Google and You Tube. He said the act of duplication or copy original work in all medium would amount to infringement and violates section 2 (m) of Copy Right Act of 1957. Such pirated version of the film distributed to the audience worldwide through various digital devices. As a result of internet piracy Madras Talkies lost several crores of rupees. Piracy has been recognised as unwarranted phenomenon in the film industry.
There has been no machinery to check the menace as the government does not have any control over the dissemination of such pirated materials in the internet. Counsel for the petitioner, Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam submitted "apart from the Copy Rights Act, the only provision available to control the unbridled piracy is under the provisions of Information Technology Act 2000.
Hence, he sought direction to prevent 13 defendants including Google India, You Tube, BSNL, MTNL, Air Tel, Aircel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, who are intermediaries and telecom service providers, search engines, from permitting streaming of film in the internet. Abudu Kumar said in the civil suit, the petitioner sought permanent injunction restraining them and other unidentified persons from infringing his copyright of ‘O Kadhal Kanmani’ in any manner.Admitting the suit, Justice K Ravichandra Babu, before whom the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, granted an interim stay and adjourned the matter to six weeks.
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