Football fever has gripped the whole world and with the interesting semifinals coming up, the enthusiasm is at an all time high right now.
As per a new court order, a number of website which include file storage sites, torrent file aggregators and Google’s URL shortener Goo.gl and even Google docs have been blocked in India. This order was passed following a complaint filed by Sony’s Multi Screen Media, which has the broadcasting rights for the FIFA World cup in which it alleged online piracy.
If some sourced are to be believed, Delhi High Court on 23 June 2014 passed an order instructing internet service providers to block around 472 websites. The order was sanctioned by Justice V. Kameswar Rao. The order was allegedly later updated bringing the tally of blocked sites down to 219.
In the complaint filed by Sony, the company clearly states that many of these websites are indulging in streaming, hosting, providing access to, etc. which infringes the company’s exclusive rights and broadcast and re-production rights. The company further adds that such acts not only cause financial losses to the company but it also effects the government, as it takes away the legitimate revenue to the govt. through service tax etc. which are payable on the subscription fee payable by unnamed and named defendants if they operate their business illegitimately.
The Court has passed an ad-interim, ex-parte order stating that websites which have been named in the complaint, their partners, officers, proprietors, employees, servants, and all others in the capacity of principal or agent acting for or on behalf, or anyone claiming through, by or under it, and the websites listed, or any other site identified by the Plaintiff have been restrained from carrying out any sort of hosting, broadcasting, streaming, rebroadcasting, exhibiting, retransmitting, making available for viewing and downloading, providing access to the public, uploading, modifying, displaying, sharing, publishing through the internet, in any manner whatsoever, the Plaintiff broadcast, as broadcasted in its channels SONY PIX, SONY SIX, SONY SIX HD, SONY PIX HD in relation to the FIFA World Cup 2014 matches and content related thereto, so as to infringe the Plaintiff’s broadcast reproduction rights.
Sony can now get any website which its suspects for piracy blocked.
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