Mani Ratnam moves court to stop piracy of 'OK Kanmani'

The Madras high court on Tuesday restrained 12 telecommunication companies and two online sites from infringing on the copyright of Mani Ratnam's recent movie 'O Kadhal Kanmani'. The director had moved the court seeking directions to stop Google India, YouTube, BSNL, MTNL, Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices from broadcasting the film.
In his petition, Mani Ratnam said the government had failed to check the distribution of pirated materials on the internet.The original version of the film was pirated and disseminated through CDs, Blue Ray discs and other information and technology systems. Further, piracy on the internet could only be prevented by blocking the URLs of sites suspected of disseminating pirated versions of films, he said.
He said according to the Information Technology Act, the 12 telecommunication companies and the two websites were intermediaries. An intermediary is defined in the act as any entity which received, stored and transmitted electronic records. Inadvertently, through these 14 intermediaries, massive piracy was being committed, he said. The IT Act had clearly said that intermediaries had to exercise due diligence to prevent piracy, he said.
When the matter came for hearing, Justice K Ravichandra Babu granted an interim stay. The matter has been posted to next week for hearing.