By Rima Majumdar and Aditya Vats Sharma
Introduction
The technological advancement in today’s age has transformed the way digital content is created, distributed and consumed. However, while these developments have assisted in a new era of accessibility and convenience, they have simultaneously given rise to complex legal and regulatory challenges like acts of infringement and the circumvention of Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures. The unauthorized and unlicensed downloading and broadcasting of content within the digital ecosystem is commonly known as Piracy, which remains a persistent issue in today’s age. Piracy is no longer confined to already available OTT content, but has expanded to include practices such as mirror streaming, or real-time streaming of simulcast events.
With the boom of the concept of “Content on the Go”, coupled with an exponential evolution of the mobile application market, a diverse range of copyrighted content is being produced on a continuous basis, whether it be movies, fictional shows, reality shows, sports events etc., and the same are being added into the bouquet of catalog available with major motion picture studios and production houses. Such content can be consumed through a number of mediums, such as the aforementioned mobile phone applications, online websites of the production houses or any third – party licensor, such as Netflix, Prime Video etc.
It is not out of place to say that such diverse content is in itself dynamic and any reproduction, hosting, uploading, streaming, downloading, broadcasting, telecasting or making available of the same without the express permission or authorization of the owner of copyright constitutes infringement of the said copyright, which also results in an enormous commercial loss to the content owner as well.
Recently the Hon’ble Delhi High Court was posed with such a challenge, in the matter of “Star India Pvt. Ltd. vs. IPTV Smarter & Ors”.[1], whereby a suit was filed, by one of the leading media production and broadcasting houses, praying for a decree of permanent injunction, restraining the Defendants from infringing its copyright and broadcast reproduction rights.
Dispute at Hand – Rise of the Rogues
Locus of the suit arose, when the 2025 annual IPL season was at its peak and viewership was climbing with each subsequent match. However, not every spectator was enjoying the same through the formal legal means, and to cater such spectators’ needs, numerous rogue websites as well as mobile phone applications mushroomed up.
Before delving further into the facts, it is imperative to understand an important aspect, as to what are Rogue Websites?
In layman’s terms, Rogue Websites are fraudulent sites that mimic legitimate ones, and often infringe upon intellectual property (IP) rights of the aforesaid legitimate websites/digital streaming platforms. These Rogue websites are not limited to the entertainment industry only, as they are also operating in various other industries and sectors like e-commerce, finance, and healthcare they exploit various unsuspecting users and jeopardize trust. The domain registration details of these websites are unknown and all contact information is either masked or blocked. Even the ad – networks employed on these websites are not run off – the – mill popular networks, but obscure ad – networks, with equally anonymized credentials. These websites operate in a very clandestine manner, as they incite consumers for access to free movies, television shows, and exclusive OTT content, however, most of these websites provide shortened links, redirected only to third – party websites and as such, they avoid hosting any infringing content on their own servers.
The Hon’ble Delhi High Court in the matter of “UTV Software Communication Ltd. & Ors. v. 1337X.to & Ors[2]”, amongst many others dealt with the issue of Rogue Websites, and laid down factors to determine if a website is Rogue or not. The same are as follows:
- Is the primary purpose or intent of the website to commit or facilitate copyright infringement?
- Is the website intended to indulge in flagrancy of infringement or facilitation of the infringement?
- Are the details of the registrant flagged or masked, and no personal or traceable detail is available either of the registrant or the user.
- Whether the online details and location of the website contains information about the directors, indexes, or categories of the means to infringe or facilitate an infringement of copyright.
Now coming back to the facts of the suit filed by Star India, once these Rogue Websites started popping up, it came to the Plaintiff’s knowledge that its reproduction and broadcasting rights were being actively infringed by these websites and streaming platforms, due to unauthorized live – streaming of major sports events like Indian Premier League, among its other copyrighted content.
In order to curb such blatant infringement and prevent further commercial losses, Star India Pvt. Ltd., i.e., the Plaintiff filed a suit for permanent injunction restraining the Defendants, including IPTV Smarter Pro and 16 rogue domains/URLs and websites indulging into such unlawful activities.
These platforms have been operating in a nexus, infringing the Plaintiff’s exclusive content in relation to the sporting events, such as the Indian Premier League 2025 and also the forthcoming England Tour of India 2025, which was scheduled to commence from June 01, 2025 to June 30, 2025.
The Plaintiff, pleaded for real – time blocking of rogue domains and mobile applications only till July 03, 2025, as during the summer vacations of the Hon’ble High Court, various high value sporting events take place and the infringement activities of the Defendants pose serious risk of substantial, and irreparable harm to the Plaintiff. To support its contentions, the Plaintiff placed reliance on the following cases,
- Star India Private Limited vs. https//crichdplayer.org & Ors[3].
In this case, a real time injunction was granted by the Hon’ble Court qua the Indian Premier League with respect to rogue website, extending to their associated domains/URLs/UIs. - Star India Pvt Ltd. & Anr. Vs. Jiolive. Tv and Ors[4].
This case emphasized the necessity of blocking rogue websites on a real-time basis in connection with sporting events.
The Hon’ble High Court keeping in view the urgency pleaded by the Plaintiff, as well as the facts and circumstances, recognized the Plaintiff as the true owner of exclusive rights in its content, and extended the order dated February 10, 2025, whereby it had already passed an ex – parte ad – interim injunction in favor of the Plaintiff, Star India Pvt. Ltd., and against the Defendants, i.e., the Rogue websites and their respective Domain Name Registrars (DNRs).
Through the previous order, the DNRs were directed to block and suspend all associated domains/URLs/UIs, along with an intimation to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to suspend access to the same, with a liberty granted to the Plaintiff, to implead newly identified domains/URLs/UIs as and when discovered during the course of proceedings.
However, vide the subsequent order dated May 29, 2025, the Hon’ble Court extended the scope of the ex – parte ad – interim injunction already granted, and further directed the DNRs and ISPs to block access to infringing domains/URLs/UIs on a real-time basis, as and when notified by the Plaintiff, till the next date of hearing, i.e., July 03, 2025. This extension was thus termed as “Superlative Injunction”, which the Hon’ble High Court referred to as an extended version of the available “Dynamic + Injunction”, as the said “Superlative Injunction” grants the Plaintiff an additional route to avail real – time reliefs against the infringing activities of Rogue Defendants, irrespective of the mode of infringement.
The Hon’ble Court’s Rationale behind Real – Time Blocking
The Hon’ble High Court observed that the new era of technology and digital advancement, makes it easier and convenient for Infringers to create alpha numeric/ mirror/redirect variants of infringing websites, and by the time impleading and extension of reliefs can take place in favor of the Plaintiff, numerous mirror websites, domains pop up, resulting in the impleadment being infructuous.
It was further observed that in scenarios involving infringement such as live – streaming of sporting events, by the time the Plaintiff approaches the Court to seek any relief, it becomes too late due to the unwarranted mirror websites, leading to more widespread infringement. Under such circumstances, the Courts have often held that real – time relief is warranted in order to not let rights of the Plaintiff being rendered futile in the virtual word.
Conclusion – A Never Ending Conundrum
Although the relief of “Superlative Injunction”, as granted by the Hon’ble Delhi High Court is an assertive step forward in familiarizing judicial reforms to the realities of digital infringement in this modern age, however there still exists certain measures to circumvent the judicial approach taken by the Hon’ble Courts.
Nonetheless, this order of the Hon’ble High Court examines how Courts are actively shaping remedies that are preemptive, flexible and technologically attuned, thereby reinforcing the relevance of Intellectual Property Rights in digital age. This proactive approach acknowledges that infringers quickly adapt with mirror or redirect sites, making delayed legal remedies ineffective. Thus, real-time judicial intervention was deemed necessary to protect content creators’ rights in the fast – evolving digital ecosystem.
Hansika Bajaj, Assessment Intern at S. S. Rana & Co. has assisted in the research of this article.
[1] CS (COMM) 266/2025
[2] 2019 SCC OnLine Del 8002
[3] CS (COMM) 266/2025
[4] CS (COMM) 688/2023