Delhi HC issues injunction against unauthorised sharing of Apna College course materials

New Delhi: Issuing an ad-interim injunction, the Delhi High Court has ordered deactivation of WhatsApp numbers of two involved in the unauthorised dissemination of course materials from the online education platform "Apna College."

The defendants were found to be sharing Apna College's copyrighted content on popular social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and YouTube.

Apna College filed a suit alleging copyright infringement against 17 entities responsible for sharing its course materials, including printed content, videos, and more, through these social media channels.

The court ordered that details of Telegram channels mentioned in the complaint be furnished to the platform, enabling them to block these channels within 72 hours.

It also asked Telegram to provide information about individuals or entities associated with these channels, such as email addresses and phone numbers, for the purpose of the ongoing legal proceedings.

Justice Singh's decision also drew upon her previous judgement in the case of Neetu Singh v. Telegram FZ LLC, which dealt with unauthorised sharing of educational materials on Telegram.

The court observed that the defendant entities had employed various techniques to disseminate Apna College's courses, videos, and materials without authorisation.

Furthermore, Google LLC was directed to remove the YouTube channel 'Show Time,' which contained copyrighted works from Apna College.

The court also ordered the suspension of several domain names associated with infringing content, and also mandated the disbandment of a WhatsApp group named 'JAVA Alpha Placement Batch.'

Mediafire, a file hosting application, was instructed to remove the file-sharing link containing Apna College's infringing content.

Justice Singh commented on the challenge posed by digital platforms, stating that they facilitate easy copying and reproduction of course materials.

The court noted that these defendant entities were enticing students and candidates by freely distributing copyrighted materials, potentially causing significant financial loss and harm to Apna College's reputation.

"The Defendants are also collecting large sums of money to freely distribute the copyrighted material of the Plaintiff," the court stated.