The Madras high court on October 1 ordered the blocking of over 13,000 websites to prevent piracy of Vikram Vedha. The interim injunction was passed in a suit filed by Reliance Entertainment Studio Pvt Ltd. Two separate orders were passed by the bench of Justice M. Sundar. The bench restrained the respondents from infringing copyright in the film to prevent its transmission, communication, display and exhibition and ordered that “for this purpose, if blocking of websites/web pages set out in Schedule A to judge’s summons becomes necessary, the same shall be done by all concerned”. The court also ordered restraining the respondents from recording, reproducing or allowing camcording or allowing others to transmit, communicate or make available or distributing or duplicating or displaying or releasing or showing or uploading or downloading or exhibiting or playing and/or in any manner whatsoever from communicating the film without a proper licence, including through CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc, VCD, Cable TV, direct-to-home services, internet services, multimedia messaging services, pen drives, hard drives, tapes, DAS, satellite, Conditional Access Systems. The injunction was granted ex parte since the high court found that ordering notice would entail delay and defeat the object of granting an interim order.
The court found that if the interim order was not granted, it could result in the piracy being completed in all aspects of the matter and it would lead to an irreversible situation causing irreparable legal injury incapable of compensation. The interim injunction has been granted for a period of six weeks, on the interim applications in the copyright infringement suit that were moved on the date of the film’s release (September 30).