Delhi HC orders blocking of ‘Pirate’ websites [Read Judgment]

In a landmark order, a Division Bench of High Court has ordered blocking of 73“pirate” websites and directed the Department of Electronics And Information Technology, Government of India, to assist in the enforcement of orders passed by the Court in online piracy issues.This order was issued in a review petition filed by Department of Electronics And Information Technology, Government. In a landmark order, a Division Bench of High Court has ordered blocking of 73“pirate” websites and directed the Department of Electronics And Information Technology, Government of India, to assist in the enforcement of orders passed by the Court in online piracy issues. It would be a gargantuan task for the respondent to keep on identifying each offending URL and especially keeping in view that as and when the respondent identifies the URL and it is blocked by the ISP, the rogue website, within seconds can change the URL thereby frustrating the very act of blocking the URL.” Illustrating it further, the Court explained why blocking of websites which indulge in piracy is more feasible than blocking URL as follows: “a rogue website www.abc.com whose URL is www.abc.com/india-v-pakistan, can simply log into the website source code and insert the letter ‘s’ after the letter ‘v’ and change the URL to www.abc.com/india-vs-pakistan. The entire exercise of creating a website has to be undertaken.” The Court added: “On the issue of whether the appellant could be directed to ensure compliance with the blocking order directed against the service providers, suffice it to state that it is the duty of the Government, its instrumentalities and agencies to assist in the enforcement of orders passed by the Courts.” The Court also observed that if any of the above websites could show that its dominant activity is lawful and makes out a case for vacating the ex-parte ad-interim injunction, they could approach the Trial Judge who would would consider modification thereof to block a URL.