Copyright: Court obliges WhatsApp to delete groups

An exciting incident has occurred at the highest court of India. The judges have ordered WhatsApp to remove some chat groups. And this despite the fact that the court case itself has not even ended yet. The reason for the ordered deletion: the alleged violation of copyrights.

Newspapers defend themselves against copyright infringement

On the side of the lawsuit is India’s largest group of various newspaper publishers. They want to defend themselves against targeted sharing of content from their own newspapers in WhatsApp groups. We won’t see whether the plaintiffs are successful with their request until the summer. After all, the actual trial does not begin until May of this year. However, the prospect of success does not seem too bad. This makes the order against WhatsApp now expressed by the court more than clear.

Admins and WhatsApp indicted

Incidentally, several parties are sitting on the bench at once. In addition to the administrators of the affected groups, the publishing group has namely also reported the Messenger itself. Since one can easily see the cell phone number of each user within the Messenger groups, the publishing group also quickly found out the acting admins. But according to the newspaper publishers themselves, the people who have now been charged are probably just the tip of the iceberg. Thus one assumes that there would be many further groups in those one copyright-protected contents spread.

Deletion period of seven days

When the whole story came to light in the summer of 2021, the publishing group tried it on the way of an amicable settlement. It asked the messenger to remove the relevant groups without further ado. However, WhatsApp did not agree and announced that it would only act if a court obliged the company to do so. No sooner said than done. Before the trial began, the publishing group provided the competent court with screenshots of the group content, which were rich in evidence. The judges then immediately issued their order to delete the groups within seven days. Sanjeev Narula, one of the judges in charge wrote in his order:

“Thus, the plaintiff has established a prima facie case and the balance is also in favor of the plaintiff. Moreover, irreparable harm would result if an injunction is not granted preventing the defendants from illegally circulating and disseminating the plaintiff’s e-newspaper.”