Team News Riveting
Mumbai, January 27
The Mumbai police have lodged First Information Report (FIR) against Google’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sundar Pichai and YouTube Managing Director Gautam Anand in a complaint of copyright infringement filed by Bollywood filmmaker Suneel Darshan.
Darshan had approached a Mumbai Court in a private complaint regarding his 2017 film ‘Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha’ claiming that it was illegally uploaded on YouTube even though he had not given the film rights to anyone. In his complaint, Darshan claimed that there exists a prima facie violation of his rights since the movie has now garnered billions of views after being illegally uploaded on YouYube and is generating revenue of which he is not a beneficiary.
Darshan also contended that he had filed several complaints with YouTube, but no action was taken.
“Complaint reveals prima-facie an information relating to the commission of an offence punishable u/s. 63 r/w section 51 r/w. 69 of the Copyright Act, 1957, which are cognizable. Hence, it is necessary that such offence be investigated by the police,” Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate A A Panchbhai said in his order.
The FIR was registered by the police pursuant to the order of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Besides, offences under Sections 51, 63, and 69 of the Copyright Act 1957 was also registered.
Other accused apart from Sundar Pichai and Gautam Anand include Google’s grievance officer and three executives of the corporation – Chaitanya Prabhu, Namrata Rajkumar and Pawan Agarwal.
