Indian Independent Filmmakers Worldwide Association (IIFWA) has filed a petition through its signatory Ketan Mehta (director of movies such as Mangal Pandey, Rang Rasiya and Mirch Masala) in the Bombay high court.
Indian Independent Filmmakers Worldwide Association (IIFWA) has filed a petition through its signatory Ketan Mehta (director of movies such as Mangal Pandey, Rang Rasiya and Mirch Masala) in the Bombay high court. It has sought that YouTube be directed to remove clips of the second season of “IIFW Masterclass”, which has been uploaded without their permission.
The HC on Saturday asked IIFWA to serve notice to YouTube. IIFWA's counsel Jamshed Mistry said that the HC has kept their petition for hearing on April 21.
The petition has been filed against YouTube LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability company having principal place of business in California, USA and unknown content partners who uploaded the video in dispute.
IIFWA was set up to promote, support and nurture independent cinema by Indian filmmakers and filmmakers of Indian origin anywhere in the world.
In 2014, IIFWA brought out the concept of a non profit project called the “IIFW Masterclass” as an initiative to share knowledge acquired by filmmakers over their professional journeys with other practicing filmmakers and film enthusiasts.
In the first season, the 11 internationally acclaimed filmmakers who contributed were Shekhar Kapoor, Mira Nayar, Danny Boyle, Yash Chopra, Ramesh Sippy, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Subhash Ghai, Mahesh Bhatt, Prakash Jha and Aparna Sen.
The live events were recorded, and after professional editing and packaging, the shows were televised as a “cinematographic film” on TV channel National Geographic. IIFW is in the process to convert this material in a book form.
The total expense incurred for the production of the programme is approximately Rs10 lakh, and the total revenue expected from its distribution will be a minimum of Rs25 lakh, states the petition.
They recorded first episode of the second season with director Raju Hirani. IIFW had tied up with various advertisers, producers, directors and television channels to broadcast the second season, states the petition.
The petitioners said they were astonished to find that 'full infringing recordings' of the first interview of season 2 was uploaded and broadcast all over YouTube. The video shows the name of the author as “www.bollywooduncut.com”. The petition claimed that despite their attempts, they were unable to get contact details of the said website.
“Being in the forefront of internet media and entertainment business, it is impossible for YouTube to remain unaware of the plaintiff, or of FICCI, trademarks and logos of which are clearly seen in the infringing video,” alleges the petition.
Although YouTube touts the availability of purported copyright protection measures on its website, at best, these measures help copyright owners to discover the infringements only after the videos are uploaded.
In India, YouTube does not filter the videos uploaded, even though it may be fully aware that any denoted clip may cause a copyright issue, thus aiding and abetting in the process of infringement, alleges the petition.
The petition has sought that YouTube be restricted from displaying the infringing video and permitted, for the sake of its own trade and business, distribution of the infringing cinematographic film (video recording).
It has sought that the video be taken down from the site. Additionally, it seeks that YouTube may disclose on oath the identities and contact details of the content provider and uploader, ie, the proprietor / owner of www.bollywooduncut.com.
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