The Delhi High Court has ordered the blocking of several websites found to be illegally hosting pirated films and television shows such as Stranger Things, Friends, Batman, The Squid Game, The Jungle Book and others in a copyright infringement suit filed by major global entertainment companies.

Justice Tejas Karia granted a “dynamic+ injunction” in favour of Warner Bros, Netflix, Apple, Disney and Crunchyroll in the case Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc & Ors Vs animesugez.to & Ors, aimed at curbing online piracy of their copyrighted content.

The Court held that copyrighted works deserve protection the moment they are created and allowed the plaintiffs to implead any mirror, redirect or alphanumeric variations of the infringing websites named in the suit.

"To keep up with the hydra-headed nature of the infringement actions of such infringing domains / websites, this Court finds it fit to grant a ‘Dynamic+ injunction’ to protect the Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works as soon as they are created, to ensure that no irreparable loss is caused to the owners of Copyrighted Works, as there is an imminent possibility of the Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works being uploaded on Infringing Websites or their newer versions immediately thereafter," the Court said, as per legal portal Bar and Bench.

The order came after Netflix, Warner Bros, Apple, Disney and Crunchyroll, all members of the Motion Picture Association, approached the High Court stating that they are global entertainment companies owning copyrights over several films and web series.

The plaintiffs argued that despite issuing repeated takedown notices, piracy websites continued to unlawfully stream and distribute their content, causing substantial financial losses.

After hearing the matter, Justice Karia observed that the plaintiffs are the rightful owners of the copyrighted works and that the infringing websites were streaming the content on a real-time basis while also enabling users to download it.

The Court noted that such unauthorised exploitation could lead to significant financial harm to the plaintiffs, warranting immediate judicial intervention.

Accordingly, the High Court directed domain name registrars to lock and suspend the infringing websites within 72 hours and to furnish the Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) details in a sealed cover. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were also directed to block access to the infringing websites identified by the plaintiffs within the same timeframe.

Advocates Siddharth Chopra, Raghav Goyal, Mehr. Sidhu, A Moin and Aditya Singh Thakur appeared for the plaintiffs, while advocates Yash Raj and Geetanjali Vishwanathan represented two domain name registrars.