Copyright violation: Court orders blocking Twitter handles of Congress, Bharat Jodo Yatra

Bengaluru, Nov 07: A Bengaluru court on Monday directed Twitter to temporarily block the accounts of Congress party and Bharat Jodo Yatra for allegedly infringing the statutory copyright owned by MRT Music by illegally using sound records of the film KGF Chapter-2.

The complaint was filed by MRT music and FIR was lodged against Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate at Yeshwanthpur Police Station.

"Plaintiff has specifically produced CD showing the side by side file i.e., original version of his copyrighted work with that of the illegally synchronized version. These prima facie materials available before this court at this stage establishes that if same is encouraged plaintiff who is in the business of acquiring cinematography films, songs, music albums etc., will be put to irreparable injury and further same leads to encouraging the piracy at large," the Court was quoted saying by Bharat Bench.

It also directed Twitter to block the twitter handles of INC and Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Reacting to the development, Congress said it was not made aware of the case and was not present at the court proceedings.

"We have read on social media about an adverse order from a Bengaluru court against INC & BJY SM handles. We were neither made aware of nor present at court proceedings. No copy of the order has been received. We are pursuing all the legal remedies at our disposal," the Congress said in a tweet.

The complainant alleged that Jairam Ramesh had on his official Twitter handle posted two videos of the yatra, in which popular songs from KGF-2 film were used without permission.

"The said videos were made using the popular sound recordings owned and held by the complainant. The said sound recordings are that of the cinematographic film "KGF Chapter 2" (Hindi version) which is popular globally," Kumar alleged.

"On perusal of the videos, it is clear that all the accused have fraudulently, blatantly and slavishly with an intention of making wrongful gains have unauthorizedly and illegally used the sound recording owned and held by the Complainant." The Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra began from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7 and is expected to reach Jammu on January 30, 2023.

Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress' mass outreach rogramme has so far covered five southern states, namely Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It will traverse through different states in this course.