HC clears Disney's plea for banning 118 pirated animation domains
In a new development, Delhi High Court recently accepted a plea filed by Disney Enterprises to ban 118 pirated domains, that stream animation illegally. Many sites on this list pirate Disney's content while others pirate and stream high-quality anime with updated databases of the latest series and releases in Japan. Now, Indian ISPs will have to add these domains to their filtering systems.
What was the plea all about?
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the hearing happened virtually and interestingly, didn't find much opposition. It was understood during the hearing that the plaintiffs, comprising animation creators and distributors in the US, have copyrights to the content that have been pirated for years. The court noted that they have incurred heavy losses due to piracy.
The judgment on Monday favored claims of Disney Enterprises
In its order, HC said, "The plaintiffs are aggrieved by the fact that certain rogue websites are enabling the down-streaming of their creative work which includes films and other entertainment programs, albeit, without requisite licenses. The plaintiffs aver that they have the copyright in the content of their creative works."
What does the new order mean for anime piracy?
The order favored Disney, and the next step will now be taken by ISPs. However, it's important to note that these orders haven't done much to stop piracy in the past. Notably, this is a 'dynamic' injunction, meaning that the defendants are free to track, target, and ban any new domains emerging after the existing list of fishy sites are cleared.
Which sites are on this black list?
On the blacklist are infamous torrent sites such as YourBitTorrent2 and Nyaa.si, along with sites such as Kissanime, Kisscartoon, Gogoanime, 9anime, Horriblesubs, and many others. This comes after Japan in June announced a blanket ban on leech websites that pirate anime, and impact the industry.
Where can Indians watch anime legally?
A lion's share of India's anime fan base derives entertainment from these pirated sites after the Sony-owned channel Animax was discontinued on April 18, 2017. Netflix, one of the leading OTT platforms tapping into India's love for anime has even dubbed a few such series in Hindi. Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll and Hotstar are among other prominent paid platforms streaming select anime series.
