Delhi High Court bars ‘dishonest application’ from Streaming Star content

In connection with a copyright suit filed by Star Channels, the Delhi High Court restrained a “rogue app” and related websites from transmitting, reproducing and making Star Channels’ content available to the public.

Star Channels filed a court action against King’s Pro+ App and related websites (defendant no.1) for allegedly making Star’s original content available for download.

Star Channels owns and operates ‘Disney+ Hotstar’ and claims exclusive rights to the content. Star claims that the King app is an illegal mobile app and is not allowed to reproduce, store or make Hotstar content available for viewing as it has exclusive rights over it.

Star claims that the main intention of the King app is to exploit various copyrighted works of its content and to provide an alternative to legitimate sources. Star thus claims that the King App is liable for infringement of its copyright works under Section 51(a)(ii), Section 51(b), and Section 51(a)(i) of the Copyright Act.

Given the facts of the case, Justice Amit Bansal was of the view that Star had made out a prima facie case in its favor and that the balance of convenience lay with it.

Thus, the Court restrained the King app from hosting, streaming, distributing or making available to the public any of Star’s copyrighted content, broadcasts or programs.

Name Cheap Inc. (defendant no.2) is a domain name registrar, which provided the domain name registration to King. The court ordered Name Cheap Inc. block and suspend the registration of rogue websites’ domain names associated with King, its URLs and user interfaces.

It also asked him to disclose details about King, including his name, address, IP address and details of any other websites infringing Star’s content. In addition, the payment method along with the payment details used to register the domain name by the owner King.

The Court further ordered various Telecom Service Providers (Defendants No. 3 to 11) to block access to the infringing websites/apps.

It directed the Department of Telecommunications (respondent no. 12) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (respondent no. 13) to issue notices to various internet and telecom service providers registered under them to block infringing websites.

It also ordered PayPal Payment Private Limited (defendant no. 14) to freeze the account of owner King.

The court listed the matter on February 27, 2025.

Case Title: Star India Private Limited Vs. Tajkir Mohammad Tanvir (King’s Pro+) and Ors (CS(COMM) 945/2024 with IA 43343/2024)

Click here to read/download the order