John Doe Order and Bollywood
The Internet has been a breakthrough invention for sharing of data, however a major drawback of this platform is the increase in Piracy and Infringement of other kinds. There was a period where Torrent sites such as BitTorrent, LimeTorrent and PirateBay used to rule over this sea, however in recent times, platforms and sites such as Telegram, TamilRockers, PikaShow and the likes of them have emerged on top. Episodes of famous shows like Game of Thrones and Stranger things were leaked even before their official releases. Last year, Zee Entertainment Enterprises filed a complaint after pirated versions of Radhe were being circulated on messaging platforms, including WhatsApp and Telegram.1 There is a constant breach of Copyright protection and the battle continues to be fought even today.
Striking Back
With the rise of such infringement, the producers and makers of the Movies and Shows have started using prevention tac-tics such as the John Doe Order. Such suit is filed when the makers anticipate the distribution of such pirated links on these platforms. Telegram for instance has groups sending out inactive links which post the release of such show or movie become active.
The "John Doe order", popularly known as the "Ashok Kumar order" in India is passed when the defendants in question are largely anonymous. Injunction actions is taken against such unknown parties. While general rule stated that the details of such defendants should be known, Order 39 Rule 2 of the Civil Procedure Code read along with Section 151 of the CPC and also covered under the provisions of the Specific Relief Act,1963 empowers the Court to issue such order.
When passed, the order invokes quia timet injunctions. Thus, reaffirming the notion of quia timet and emphasising the time-honored idea of not sleeping on one's rights, particularly when it becomes apparent that such rights are going to be violated. Quia timet remedy permits the aggrieved party to protect its IP rights prior to the actual infringement. The Hon'ble Delhi High Court passed the first ever John Doe order, in Taj Television Ltd. and ors. v. Rajan Mandal and ors.2 restraining the transmission of FIFA World Cup by unlicensed cable operators.
The John Doe order has been passed in several cases of piracy of movies, Singham, Dilwale, Padmavat and Gangs of Wasseypur to name a few. One of the major issues faced after passing such order was the irregularity and ambiguity regarding blocking the whole website or just the particular links.
A recent example of such order being passed can be in case of Bhanushali Studios Ltd. & Others v/s Telegram Messenger LLP & Another3 where the Plaintiff were makers of the movie "Janhit Mein Jaari" and filed a suit against the Defendants (Telegram) and a John Doe suit against the anonymous defendants. The Plaintiffs claimed that such links were shared on the platform which gave access to the pirated version of the movie. This affected the revenue collections at the box office as well as the OTT platforms.
The Court in the "Singham" case Reliance Big Entertainment v. Multivision Network and Others4 laid down that to pass this order in favour of the Plaintiff, following essential factors need to be proved:
- Prima facie case
- imminent danger, and
- balance of convenience
The order has further been used as a shield against the Pirated DVDs, CDs as well as unlicensed streaming of various Sports Events by Local Cable Operators. One such major example is where for the India-England International Cricket Series in July 2022, Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) won a Dynamic John Doe injunction5 order from the Delhi High Court to stop copyright infringement. The Court has ordered several Multi-System Operators (MSO), Local Cable Operators (LCO), Websites/Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) as well as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been ordered to block all such attempts of broadcasting the event.
In a recent trend, it has been observed that the Movies release teasers, songs and trailers which are circulated on platforms like Whatsapp and Telegram freely, as they create a buzz and ensure free publicity. However as the release comes closer, the John Doe jurisprudence is invoked.
Interestingly, in Shilpa Shetty Kundra vs Clapping Hands Private Limited 6, the Actress filed for a John Doe suit against several alleged defamers of her husband, Mr. Raj Kundra.
Conclusion:
Since the shelf life of movies in theatres has reached an all-time low, the rights to those movies are increasingly being sold to OTT platforms in order to maintain the level of excitement surrounding them. Not only does piracy influence theatrical releases, but it also affects over-the-top (OTT) releases. The John Doe order has shown to be an efficient and prompt method of putting a stop to the illegal activities of those who violate intellectual property rights; as a result, its application has increased in recent years. On the other hand, this will not in any way prevent the unauthorised version from being distributed. As a result, there is an urgent need to issue instructions that are clear and unambiguous in this matter. These orders should ensure that neither party's fundamental legal rights are infringed upon.
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