“John doe” to safeguard “BodyGuard”
Reliance Entertainment in a move to safeguard their latest movie “Bodyguard” has procured a John Doe order from Delhi High Court restraining websites, cable operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and others from infringing or violating the copyright of Reliance entertainment. The objective is to prevent the illegal broadcasting or streaming of the movie on cable or websites.
Sanjay Tandon, Vice-president Music and anti-piracy, Reliance Entertainment said that “it has procured an order from the Delhi High Court to prevent the illegal broadcast or streaming of its upcoming film, BODYGUARD” he further stated that “The order is a measure to prevent piracy of BODYGUARD. With this, we expect piracy levels for the film to come down by 60 per cent. The company has already sent out about 2,000 intimation notices to cable operators, websites within and outside India and ISPs”.
Mr. Tondon also said that a similar order was served to about 30 persons for its last film “Singham” and as a result they were able to bring down piracy by 40%. ”For BODYGUARD, the company has readied a team that will conduct raids to identify those infringing on the copyright. At Reliance Entertainment, we have created a separate department to fight piracy,” he added.
A John Doe order is an injunction order granted by the Courts against Anonymous persons who may be committing a breach of the rights of the Intellectual property of the plaintiff and is not identified at the time the suit is filed. The order was filed recognized in the case of Tej Television V. Rajan Mandal [IA NO. 5628/2002 in CS (OS) 1072/2002] in 2002 by Justice Dalbeer Bhandari. In this landmark decision, the Delhi High Court granted a “John Doe” type order for the first time, empowering a court-appointed commissioner to enter the premises of any cable operator illegally airing the World Cup. The court recognized the exigency in which no other remedies could provide effective relief to a TV channel to protect its investment in a valuable live broadcast.
A John Doe order is similar to an order of Temporary Injunction passed under Order 39 Rule 1& 2 of the code of Civil Procedure i.e., prima facie case, balance of convenience and irreparable loss. However, for a John Doe order a plaintiff is required to prove that it anticipates large scale and sporadic infringement and is unable to ascertain the full particulars of the defendants at the time of seeking relief.
The film is set to release today i.e., 31.08.2011 in about 2500 screens across the country on the holy occasion of Eid.
Eid Mubarak to all our readers.
Author is a practising Advocate in Rajasthan High Court.
Its time we evolved an Indian name for this kind of injunctions!