A Bengaluru court directed microblogging site Twitter to temporarily block the handle of the Indian National Congress, @INCIndia, and that of its Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign, @BharatJodo, responding to a charge of violation of copyright law by the party. MRT Music, a Bengaluru-based music label, had accused the party of using songs from the super-hit film KGF 2 in one of the videos of the Bharat Jodo Yatra featuring Rahul Gandhi.
The music company had said in its complaint that it had invested a huge sum to acquire the rights to the songs in KGF 2 in Hindi.
In its ex-parte order, the court said the music label had specifically produced a CD showing the side-by-side file — the original version of his copyrighted work with that of the illegally synchronised version. “These prima facie materials available before this court at this stage establishes (sic) 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 (sic),” the court said.
The court ordered Twitter to take down three links from the two handles and further directed it to block the Twitter handles @INCIndia and @BharatJodo.
MRT Music had further filed a case against three INC leaders — Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate — for infringement of copyrights.
“These unlawful actions committed by a national political party reflects their blatant disregard to the rule of law and the rights of private individuals and entities while they are conducting this Bharath Jodo Yatra to seek an opportunity to govern the country and frame legislation for protecting the rights of the common man and businesses,” a statement released by the MRT Music read.
INC reacts to court order
On the defensive due to the court order, the INC said it would take all the legal remedies at its disposal. “We have read on social media about an adverse order from a Bengaluru court against INC & BJY SM handles. We were neither made aware of nor present at court proceedings. No copy of the order has been received. We are pursuing all the legal remedies at our disposal,” the party said in a tweet.
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