Filmmaker Suneel Darshan wins copyright case against Google, YouTube, feels 'vindicated'

Veteran film producer-director Suneel Darshan said he felt ‘vindicated’ after winning a copyright infringement case against Google and YouTube. He termed it as a ‘long battle’ after case went on for eight  years. A district court of Gurgoan ordered tech giant to stop ‘infringing’ on filmmaker’s copyrighted content, while awarding a compensation of Rs 50,000 to him.  

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Suneel Darshan is kwn for producing and/or directing numerous films, most of m featuring Akshay Kumar, like Priyanka Chopra-Lara Dutta’s breakthrough film Andaaz, Jaanwar, Dosti: Friends Forever and more. He as  proprietor of film production company Shree Krishna International, h in 2011, filed a permanent injunction suit against Google India and its US-based parent YouTube at Gurgaon court.  He h accused, in his petition, company of infringing on his copyrighted content in termes of sound recording, cinematograph films and audio-visual songs, without any license or authorisation.

He claimed that he or his company h t given any authority to Google or YouTube to store, telecastand/or communicate his content to public.  Darshan h claimed he suffered ‘huge financial loss’ with company’s ‘unauthorized exploitation’ of his content by taking up revenue generated from it. After court's order, Darshan was quoted as saying, “It was a long battle, but order me me felt vindicated. I would calculate and file for total dams soon.” 

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Google, through its lawyers, however, claimed that y h only provided a platform without any ‘charge’. y also stated that y h kwledge of it being copyright infringement. Google also stated that y were only ‘service providers’ under IT Act, 2000. company’s team argued that y could t be held liable for copyright infringement because y did t have any control over what users were uploing. 

Darshan brors 

Suneel Darshan’s bror Dharmesh Darshan is also a filmmaker. Darshan brors delivered many hits in ‘90s and 2000s. Dharmesh Darshan is kwn for Raja Hindustan and Dhkan. Suneel Darshan’s last film was Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha. movie, that h released in 2017, was launchp for his son Shiv Darshan. 

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