Reliance Entertainment has gone overboard after obtaining a John Doe order from the Delhi High Court to prevent piracy of its film Bodyguard, that was released this week. The company has sent over two thousand notices to internet service providers, seeking bans on file-sharing websites, and website owners, requesting them to find and remove all offending content that is currently hosted on their websites or may be uploaded in future.
The court order restrains websites, cable operators and ISPs and others from infringing or violating Reliance's copyright by “illegally” showing the film. The order is supposed to be a measure to prevent piracy of Bodyguard and is expected to bring down piracy levels for the film by 60 per cent, according to Reliance Entertainment.
"The way this order is implemented by ISPs prevents people from using some sites altogether. File-sharing and online streaming sites are not only used for piracy, but for people like you and me to share, for example, our holiday photographs and videos with friends. This is different from what happens when cable operators show movies – it does not affect other programming,” said digital media portal MediaNama Editor, Nikhil Pahwa.
According to Spicy IP, a blog that tracks intellectual property issues in India, “This 'John Doe' Order gives protection to the IP owner, Reliance Entertainment, from copyright violation by prospective anonymous offenders. It thus enables an IP owner to serve the notice and take action at the same time against anyone who is found to indulge into infringing the copyright of the movie. A ‘John Doe’ order does not specify any one defendant in particular. It is meant for everyone who would infringe the copyrights of a product. The name 'John Doe' is used as a placeholder in a legal action or case for any person whose true identity is unknown- in this instance, a potential pirate interested in illegally downloading or sharing prints of the film for which the order has been obtained.”
In July this year, Reliance Entertainment had done a similar turn in the run-up to the release of its earlier film, Singham. It had obtained a similar court order and served notices to ISPs across India, leading to the temporary banning of several popular file-sharing sites across the country. The company claimed later that this had led to a 40 per cent reduction in piracy of the film. This time it is hopeful of bringing down piracy levels to 60 per cent.
Continued Pahwa, “Singham set a precedent which Bodyguard followed, and if every movie producer gets a similar John Doe order each week and ISPs implement it in the same manner, no one will be able to access file-sharing sites. Again, the issue is not with the order, but with the way ISPs implement it. The ISPs are also not at fault because they're left with a hard choice – it is not possible for them to prevent access to individual files, but they have to follow the court directive, so the only way possible for them is to block all file sharing sites.”
ISPs do not have the technology to monitor users from sharing specific files. They, therefore, block file-sharing sites altogether to stay on the safe side. Keeping the Singham precedent in mind and the way Reliance Entertainment has gone over the top in trying to implement the latest court order, these could be troubled times for file-sharing in India .
But users should not sit twiddling their thumbs. “A representation needs to be made to the court to request it to direct ISPs to not block entire websites altogether, and perhaps explain the issues with on-ground implementation and consumer rights,” said Pahwa.
