This is a weekly post on copyright and entertainment law updates.
Zee sues Rajat Sharma, India TV for airing episode of late Bal Thackeray
Zee Media Corporation Ltd filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against journalist Rajat Sharma and his news programme India TV, alleging that India TV had aired, without authorization, an old footage of late Shiv Sena chairman Bal Thackeray. It was claimed that the impugned footage was taken from a 1993 episode of Zee Media’s program ‘Aap Ki Adalat’, and the airing of such copyrighted material amounted to copyright infringement. The defendants, however, rebutted that the footage has since been removed, and would not be used again in the future.
Miley Cyrus sued for copyright infringement over Instagram post
International pop star Miley Cyrus has recently been sued for copyright infringement by photographer Robery Barbera, over a picture posted on Instagram. The complaint filed before a Federal Court in California claims that Cyrus’ February 2021 Instagram post contained two photographs which were owned by Barbera and were posted without any prior authorization. The photographer claimed that the pop star’s use of the copyrighted content would have “paralysed, if not destroyed, the possibilities of any market for photography.” As a result of such infringement, Miley Cyrus would have benefitted from content over which she had no rights, increasing interactions on her profile and therefore gaining advantages for the promotion of her music.
Sony Music receives partial summary order in infringement suit
In a recent development in Sony Music’s ongoing copyright infringement suit against the energy drink company ‘Bang’, the US District Court for the Southern District of California has passed a partial summary order in favour of Sony. The suit revolved around Bang’s use of Sony’s copyrighted music in its advertisements posted on social media platform ‘TikTok’, as well as in paid videos posted by influencers, promoting Bang’s energy drink. The summary judgement was passed in favour of Sony, and Bang was held liable for both directly infringing Sony’s copyrighted music, as well as for vicarious liability for the paid videos uploaded by various influencers.
Authored and compiled by Varun Gopala Krishnan (Associate, BananaIP Counsels), and Rohan Koshy (Intern, BananaIP Counsels)
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