New Delhi: A local court in Bengaluru on Monday directed Twitter to temporarily block handles of Congress and Bharat Jodo Yatra in a copyright infringement suit that was filed by MRT Music (plaintiff), Bar and Bench reported.
The suit accused the handles of illegally “using sound records of film KGF-Chapter 2.
“The court ruled that prima facie materials established that if the alleged illegal use of sound records was encouraged, the plaintiff would suffer an irreparable injury and the same would also lead to encouraging piracy at large,” the report added.
M Naveen Kumar, who manages MRT music, filed the complaint against three Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi for allegedly using music from the superhit Kannada film KGF-2, which violated copyright laws, during the Bharat Jodo (unite India) Yatra, which travelled across Karnataka last month before moving to neighbouring Telangana.
“Plaintiff has specifically produced a CD showing the side-by-side file i.e., original version of his copyrighted work with that of the illegally synchronized 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,” the Court stated.
Counsel for MRT emphasied that since the respondents were resorting to illegal means to use their music and infringing their rights, it was important that a Commissioner was appointed to inspect and conduct an electronic audit and preserve the contentious material on Congress’ Twitter account and Bharat Jodo Yatra’s Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook accounts.
The Court agreed and added the “object of granting an injunction would stand defeated if a commissioner was not appointed.”
In an FIR, filed with the police in Bengaluru’s Yashwanthpur, the music company said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted two yatra videos that used popular songs from KGF-2 without permission.