Super Cassettes Industries has filed a lawsuit against Google and YouTube for copyright violation after the US companies displayed content over which the Indian music label says it holds the copyright.
The High Court in Delhi in November issued an interim restraint order against YouTube displaying or disseminating the content in question, but the Indian company is seeking a permanent injunction and damages from YouTube. “We had communicated several times with YouTube and Google both in India and the US to remove the content that infringes our copyrights,” said Amit Sibal, lawyer for Super Cassettes. Under the court order, Google, which was not represented at the proceedings, has to remove the content until the final order is decided.
Section 29 of India’s Information Technology Act, 2000, makes intermediaries such as internet service providers, website hosting companies, search engines, email services and social networking sites liable for their users’ content. Google has criticized the act, arguing that it cannot be held responsible for the content uploaded by its users and that it is a neutral intermediary.
Under the act, network service providers can be held liable unless they can prove that the offence or contravention was committed without their knowledge or that they had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence or contravention. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for February 2008.
