A Bengaluru Court has temporarily blocked the Twitter handles of the Congress party, Bharat Jodo Yatra in the copyright infringement suit in copyright infringement suit initiated by MRT Music (plaintiff) alleging that the handles illegally used sound records of the film KGF-Chapter 2.
The court stated that prima facie materials established that if the alleged illegal use of sound records was encouraged, the plaintiff would suffer an irreparable injury and would also result in encouraging piracy at large. The court further added that the plaintiff has produced a CD showing side-by-side, 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 establish that if the 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 piracy at large,” the Court said.
The court, via an order of ex-parte injunction, restrained the defendants from unauthorisedly and illegally using the copyrighted work owned by the plaintiff till the next date of hearing.
The court also asked Twitter to remove three links from its platform and directed it to block the handles of INC and Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Advocate for MRT argued that an appointment of a Commissioner to inspect and conduct an electronic audit and to preserve the infringing material on INC’s Twitter account and Bharat Jodo Yatra’s Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook account is imperative since the respondents were illegally using their music and infringing their rights.
Music label sues Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders for illegal use of KGF Chapter 2 music in Bharat Jodo Yatra promos
On Friday, MRT Music, a Bengaluru-based music company, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Supriya Srinate, and Jairam Ramesh. The company has alleged that the Congress party utilized songs from the Hindi version of the Kannada super-hit film KGF: Chapter 2 without permission to produce video content for the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra of the party led by Rahul Gandhi. It is notable that while Lahari Music and T-Series own the music rights for the South Indian versions of the movie, MRT owns the rights to the Hindi version.
The company mentioned in its complaint that it had spent a lot of money to attain the rights to the songs in the South Indian super-hit film KGF 2 in Hindi. Narasimhan Sampath, the music platform’s attorney confirmed that the music company had filed a suit against the Congress, represented by general secretary Jairam Ramesh, Supriya Shrinate, and Rahul Gandhi, for violation of copyrights belonging to MRT Music.
“The complaint mainly pertains to the unlawful fraudulent and illegal actions of the members of the steering committee in so far as violating the copyrights owned by MRT Music. The INC has created a video by unlawfully downloading and synchronizing and broadcasting the songs about the movie KGF Chapter 2 in Hindi and portraying it to be owned by the INC. They have also used a logo namely “Bharath Jodo Yatra” in the said video and have broadcasted the same on their official social media handles,” Sampath had quoted.
