Delhi High Court Blocks Wholesale Copying of News Videos

The Delhi High Court granted summary judgment in a copyright suit over the unauthorised use of news videos on four online channels. In its 29 September decision, the Court found that ten of twelve challenged videos reproduced the claimant’s works entirely or almost entirely, while another copied a continuous segment exceeding five minutes. Wholesale reproduction that substitutes for the original cannot qualify as fair dealing for reporting current events, it held. The operator’s claimed licence was unsupported after it failed to appear or produce the document. The Court permanently restrained further unauthorised use, ordered removal of the identified copies and confirmed platform-level blocking directions for twelve URLs. It declined to compel a public admission, rejected damages and recorded that deletion of the channels was no longer sought.