Block Congress Twitter account for unlawfully using 'KGF' music: Court
A Bengaluru civil court on Monday directed micro-blogging platform Twitter to temporarily block the official accounts of the Congress and its Bharat Jodo Yatra for unauthorized use of music from the superhit film KGF 2. MRT Music filed a complaint alleging the music owned by the company was used by Congress to promote its political march on social media in violation of copyright laws.
Why does this story matter?
Billed to be the longest political march organized by any political party in India's history, Bharat Jodo Yatra is a novel move by Congress, a party struggling to find its footing in recent years. Marred by controversy over many senior leaders quitting the party in the last few months, the grand old party expects the 3,570km yatra—launched in September—to give it a much-needed boost.
Take down videos, suspend accounts: Court to Twitter
In the verdict, Bengaluru's 85th Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Lathakumari observed the unauthorized use of the music by Congress amounted to an offense under Section 63 of the Copyright Act and Section 79 of the IT Act. The order directed Twitter, the fourth defendant in the case, to take down the videos and block the two accounts till the next date.
Case filed against Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, Supriya Shrinate
Based on a complaint filed by N Naveen Kumar, manager of MRT Music, on Saturday, Bengaluru's Yeshwanthpur Police lodged an FIR against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, and Supriya Shrinate under the Copyright Act and Information Technology Act. The Congress allegedly posted two videos of the Bharat Jodo Yatra with songs from KGF 2 as background music and affixed their logos without permission.
No copy of the order received: Congress
MRT Music's complaint stated, "Each of the copyrighted content of the complainant has been illegally stored, hosted, downloaded, sideloaded, uploaded and thereby creating infringing copies of the sound recording and audiovisual content as per the Copyright Act, 1957 and the same is liable to be handed over and/or destroyed." Meanwhile, the Congress on Monday tweeted it didn't receive any copy of the court's order.
