LAWS(DLH)-2008-9-213

ESPN STAR SPORTS Vs. GLOBAL BROADCAST NEWS LTD

Decided On September 26, 2008
ESPN STAR SPORTS Appellant
V/S
GLOBAL BROADCAST NEWS LTD. Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Regular First Appeal arises out of the judgment dated 18th February 2008 delivered by a learned Single Judge of this Court, where in the first part deals with interlocutory relief and second part deals with the non-maintainability of the suit. The learned Single Judge had dismissed the entire suit of the appellant/plaintiff for non- compliance of Section 61 of the Copyright Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act").

(2.) After the arguments were heard in this appeal, both the parties including News Broadcasters Association, agreed to attempt to arrive at a broad consensus on the question of 'fair dealing' in light of the existing guidelines framed by Prasar Bharti and accordingly requested this court to defer the delivery of this judgment. However, even after giving ample opportunity, the parties have failed to arrive at a settlement for consensus on the question of fair dealing, consequently, we are delivering this judgment as requested by the Counsels on 29th of August 2008 as this judgment would affect several pending cases before the Original side of this Court.

(3.) The facts of the case briefly stated are as follows: (a) The appellant ESPN Star Sports (hereinafter referred to as the "ESS") has obtained the sole and exclusive rights/license from various sports bodies including Cricket Australia (hereinafter referred to as the "C.A."), to televise in India various sporting events including the India v. Australia test matches, One Day International (ODI) matches and the solitary T20 cricket match to be played in Australia from December 26, 2007 onwards till March 8, 2008 and therefore, no other person, entity and/or Cable Operators could broadcast/telecast in India, the Cricket Matches without a license from the Appellant or its sole and exclusive distributor ESPN Software India Private Ltd. The appellants had granted licenses to over 5000 cable operators in India to transmit their channels on their cable networks. (b) The respondent No. 1 Global Broadcast News Ltd. is a Broadcaster having a number of news channels by the name of CNN-IBN and IBN7. The respondent No. 2, TV Today Network Pvt. Ltd. is a Broadcaster which has news channel(s) by the name of "Aaj Tak" and "Headlines Today". The respondent No. 3 Media Content and Communications Services India Pvt. Ltd. is a Broadcaster having a news channel by the name of "STAR News". The respondent No. 4, Zee News Ltd. is a Broadcaster having a news channel by the name of "Zee News". The respondent No. 5, New Delhi Television Ltd. is a news channel by the name of "NDTV 24x7". (c) After the commencement of the Cricket Matches, the field staff of the appellant's distributor in various locations had noticed that the news channels owned by the respondents/defendants had been unauthorizedly telecasting the signals of the Cricket Matches in a manner which was inconsistent with their primary obligation of being news based channel(s) showing scheduled news bulletins and/or current affairs programmes. The respondents had indulged in using/appropriating without authority, substantial portions of the footage of the appellant's channel namely Star Cricket which had telecast the test matches exclusively from December 26, 2007 to January 28, 2008 for creating programmes which they were commercially exploiting. (d) The appellant thereafter filed a suit for permanent injunction seeking orders restraining the respondents from utilizing their transmission and/or using the footage for any television programme except for the usage of regularly scheduled news bulletins provided such usage would not be for more than two minutes per day.