MxMIndia

Tag: Delhi High Court

  • The Delhi HC has prohibited mobile operators from using live match updates for commercial gain

    Delhi HC upholds Star India’s cricket rights on mobile phones

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Delhi High Court has prohibited Telecom Operators and Mobile Value Added Service (MVAS) providers from exploiting Star India’s exclusive cricket media rights by providing live updates of matches to their subscribers. Star India has the exclusive media rights to cricket matches organized by the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) until 2018.

     

    The court, in its order on Wednesday, reaffirmed Star India’s exclusive digital rights to BCCI cricket matches on mobile as well and barred telecom operators from using match and score updates for commercial gains. It asked telecom operators and MVAS providers to either disseminate score updates with a lag of 15-minutes or pay a fair share of revenue generated through broadcast of live and contemporaneous scores to Star India by procuring a license. This is a vindication of Star India’s stand that match information and facts generated from a sporting event is a proprietary right which accrues to the event organizer in the digital space.

     

    “The honourable High Court has vindicated Star India’s stand by passing this historic judgment. The lack of clarity was severely compromising the ability of rights owners to invest to create great experiences for sports fans.  This decisive verdict finally creates clarity on who owns the rights and a mechanism for monetization and fair revenue share. For me, this is a huge boost to the entire digital and mobile space. Finally, we have a foundation on which to build great products as well as successful businesses and the biggest beneficiary will be the consumer,” said Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India.

     

    Hearing Star India’s petition, the High Court also observed that providing live score updates prevents Star India from effectively monetizing its exclusive rights.

     

    “It would be just and reasonable for the defendants to either obtain a license and gain equal rights to their subscribers, or make them wait for some time, in order to not prejudice the right of the plaintiff (Star India) to earn revenue from the match information,” the court said in its order. “Those who do not obtain a license from the plaintiff, may not disseminate the score update or match alert before 15 minutes from the moment such score update or match alert is telecasted or broadcasted by the plaintiff (Star India).”

     

    Star India intends to provide content to sports fans through multiple engagement platforms, including web, mobile phones and tablets.

  • Delhi HC says India TV did not infringe Yash Raj Films’ copyright in India Beats programme

    India TV wins case against Yash Raj Films for ‘fair use’ of “Kajra Re’ etc on news shows

    By Ananya Saha

     

    In an ongoing legal dispute between India TV and Yash Raj Films, the Division Bench of Delhi High Court consisting of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Manmohan Singh has delivered a breakthrough judgment in favour of India TV. The honourable court has held that small amount of usage of songs in a programme by India TV does not amount to ‘copyright infringement’.

     

    The Delhi High court was dealing with a dispute involving India TV and Yashraj Films. The High Court has said that use of five words of the song ‘Kajrare’, ‘Mera chain vain sab ujda’ in a promo for a consumer affairs program telecast on India TV and singing a portion of the song ‘Salaam Namaste’ in a one-hour programme ‘India Beats’ of India TV by Vasundhara Das whose life was being reviewed, amounts to ‘fair use’, as the same is de minimis, that is, very little usage compared to the whole programme.

     

    India TV MD & CEO Ritu Dhawan said, “The ruling itself is a victory for the channel and media houses alike, and places their right of ‘fair use’ at the forefront.”

     

    Prathiba Singh, intellectual property lawyer appearing for India TV, said, “The court has protected the rights of artists and creators on one hand and news channels on the other. The court has held that if every form of usage of even small bits is infringement, then creativity would be stifled.”