1. T-Series vs. Guruji.com
Group 8
Abhishek Singh 12PGP004
Bir Bahadur Singh 12PGP014
Harsh Vardhan 12PGP017
Mahesh Kumar 12PGP025
Vinnakota Harish 12PGP052
1

2. What is Copyright?
Copyright is a right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic,
musical and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films
and sound recordings.
2

3. Indian Copyright Act , 1957
The Copyright Act, 1957 governs the laws and applicable rules
related to the subject of copyrights in India.
British Copyright Copyright Act of the
Copyright Act , 1914
Act,1911 UK, 1956
Indian Copyright Act , 1957
3

4. Indian Copyright Act , 2012
In Copyright Amendment Act 2012, many modifications were made.
Few of them are:
• The bill makes special provisions for those who work in film
and sound recordings.
• Copyright in a film currently rests with the producer for 60
years.
• The bill allows for the production of copyrighted work in
special formats.
• The act gives authors, or their representatives, the right to
claim damages against use of their work.
4

5. The Case
T-Series
Guruji.com
Music Piracy
T series & Piracy
DCMA Act
Guruji.com vs T-
Series 5

6. The Case
T-Series
Guruji.com
Music Piracy
T series & Piracy
DCMA Act
Guruji.com vs T-
Series 6

7. The Case
T-Series
 T- Series which stands for Trishul Series is a music
label owned by the company Super Cassettes
Guruji.com Limited (SCIL).
 One of the top music labels in India
Music Piracy  Market share of 60% and revenue about $4.2 m
 Product mix
 Original soundtracks of movies
T series & Piracy
 Remixes
 Old devotional songs
DCMA Act
 Melodies from 1960s
 Pop hits of 1990s etc.,
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

8. The Case
T-Series
 Found in 2006, by two IIT graduates
Guruji.com
 Indigenously made search engine
 Product mix
Music Piracy  Web search
 Vertical search
T series & Piracy  Mobile ads optimization
 Provides only music search results
 Revenue model : Advertisements in their website
DCMA Act
 Is guruji.com a search engine or publisher ?
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

9. The Case
T-Series
 Indian music Industry is a consortium of 142 music
Guruji.com companies
 Piracy : Most serious problem faced by Indian music
Music Piracy industry
 Digital market of music : 5000 Cr
 Companies make a legitimate profit of : 350 Cr
T series & Piracy
 Lack of awareness or carelessness of the netizen
 Enforcing rights has been not easy given the
DCMA Act
complexity of the internet
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

10. The Case
T-Series  Since offline consumption is already suffering losses,
they shifted towards the leaks in online content
Guruji.com  T-series also stated that companies like MSN and
Yahoo can’t take a safe harbor under DMCA ACT
because the copyright holder is indian. So, Indian
Music Piracy
Copyright Act is applicable.
 T- Series is fighting a series of copyright battles on
T series & Piracy
 Google
 Zee TV
DCMA Act  MSN
 Yahoo
Guruji.com vs T-
 Guruji.com
Series

11. The Case
T-Series
Guruji.com  Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed in 1998
 Under this act, it is a crime to produce technology,
Music Piracy tools and services which fudge the access to
copyrighted works.
 DMCA also took also took care to amplify the
T series & Piracy
penalties for copyright infringement on the internet.
DCMA Act
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

12. The Case
T-Series  Guruji.com initially popular for music search slowly
gained popularity as pirated music search engine
Guruji.com  Servers of Guruji.com didn’t hold any pirated music
but it promoted the pirated music through its own
homepage search results.
Music Piracy
 They have also created a dedicated page for these
songs
T series & Piracy
 Used “deep linking” to provide access to pirated
music
DCMA Act  The real problem lies with sites like songs.pk which
hold pirated songs in their servers
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

13. The Case
T-Series  On July 16, 2008 T-series issued notice to Guruji.com
 T-series accuses Guruji.com for offering meta-data
Guruji.com (listing and song tags) instead of merely displaying
links.
 Guruji.com responded that it has done what a search
Music Piracy
engine is supposed to do and is not hosting the
copyrighted content
T series & Piracy
 T-series also stated that Guruji.com have an ad
program where ads on serious offenders in music
DCMA Act piracy like songs.pk, downloadmp3.com and others
are displayed whom used to pay them as per the
Guruji.com vs T-
contract
Series

14. The Case
T-Series  These songs belong to SCIL Copyright Ownership
 Guruji.com tried proving that they only pointed
Guruji.com consumers towards content
 The FIR registered in Bangalore is for infringement
and displaying on Guruji.com the following film
Music Piracy
songs
 All the Best
T series & Piracy
 Om Shanti Om
 Bhool Bhulaiya
DCMA Act  Apka Suroor
 Aashiq Banaya Apne
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

15. The Case
T-Series  A criminal prosecution under the copyright act, is
independent of the civil actions of injunctions and
damages, and a copyright owner is at liberty to
Guruji.com
choose either or both these remedies, under the
law.
Music Piracy
 T-Series argued in court that the Information
Technology Act 2008 does not provide certain
T series & Piracy intermediaries and platforms with safe harbor
against any kind of copyright violation
DCMA Act  As the servers, contact details and offices of
guruji.com were in India therefore Copyright Act
Guruji.com vs T- 1957 was rightly applicable in this case.
Series

16. The Case
T-Series
 Guruji.com’s first defense is to show the disclaimer
Guruji.com Disclaimer :
Guruji Music lets you search and listen to old, new, latest mp3
songs and ringtones. However, we have no liability for
Music Piracy websites that claim to have free mp3 downloads.
Guruji.com indexes third party websites and does not have
control over, nor any liability for the content of such third
T series & Piracy party websites. If you believe that any of the search results
above, link to content that infringes your copyright, please
contact us.
DCMA Act
 This disclaimer was a straight reject
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

17. The Case
T-Series
Guruji.com
What went wrong with
Music Piracy
T series & Piracy
DCMA Act
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

18. The Case
T-Series  They haven’t maintained anonymity – All the details
of the management team along with their addresses
Guruji.com are made available on the website
 On the other hand, Pulki another popular Indian
music search engine played it safe
Music Piracy
 The law and land are not in favor of guruji.com
 Other music piracy websites have servers outside
T series & Piracy India/ Outside Indian’s court purview.
 The difference in the Power Index
DCMA Act  It was like a fight between a giant shark and a
tiny fish.
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

19. The Case
T-Series
Guruji.com
Music Piracy
T series & Piracy
DCMA Act
The Judgment
Guruji.com vs T-
Series

20. The Case
T-Series
 Guruji.com removed the search links for music and
songs from its site
Guruji.com
 Shut down its music search site in 2011
 Shutting guruji.com was not and will never be the
Music Piracy
solution for the war against piracy because the real
players responsible for piracy like songs.pk are still
T series & Piracy free out
 To stop these kinds of IP offences Indian cyber laws
DCMA Act along with world’s cyber and copyright laws must
come to a resolution
Guruji.com vs. T-
Series

21. Interpretation
Section 14
Section 27 T-series is the sole owner (author) of the content
guruji.com posted on their site.
Section 51
As per Sec 14.Meaning of copyright.-For the purposes
of this Act, "copyright" means the exclusive right
Section 63 subject to the provisions of this Act, to do or authorize
the doing of any of the following acts in respect of a
work or any substantial part thereof,(iv) to make any
Section 64 cinematograph film or sound recording in respect of
the work)
Section 69
Section 79
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22. Interpretation
Section 14
Section 27
The copyright was valid under Sec 27
Section 51 According to which in the case of a sound recording,
copyright shall subsist until sixty years from the
beginning of the calendar year next following the year
Section 63 in which the sound recording is published.
There was no license granted by T-series to
Section 64
guruji.com for use of their copyright.
Section 69
Section 79
22

23. Interpretation
Section 14 Guruji.com violated the copyright act by posting the
content for downloading and listening and giving
providing further links to the copyright content.
Section 27
Under sec 51.-Copyright in a work shall be deemed to
Section 51 be infringed-
(a) when any person, without a license granted by the
owner of the copyright or the Registrar of
Section 63 Copyrights under this Act-
(i) does anything, the exclusive right to do which is by
this Act conferred upon the owner of the
Section 64 copyright, or
(ii) permits for profit any place to be used for the
communication of the work to the public where such
Section 69 communication constitutes an infringement of the
copyright
Section 79
23

24. Interpretation
Section 14
Section 27 Arrest of Anurag Dod, CEO of Guruji.com.
Sec 63.Offence of infringement of copyright or other
Section 51 rights conferred by this Act. Any person who
Knowingly infringes or abets the infringement of-
(a) the copyright in a work, or
Section 63 (b) any other right conferred by this Act, except the
right conferred by section 53A shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than
Section 64
six months but which may extend to three years and
with fine which shall not be less than fifty thousand
rupees but which may extend to two lakh rupees.
Section 69
Section 79
24

25. Interpretation
Section 14
Section 27 Seizure of the servers, storage media and other
equipment.
Section 51 As per the Sec 64 of The Copyright Act 1957 which
states that: Any police officer, not below the rank of a
sub-inspector, may, if he is satisfied that an offence
Section 63 under infringement of copyright in any work has
been, is being, or is likely to be, committed, seize
without warrant, all copies of the work, and all plates
Section 64
used for the purpose of making infringing copies of the
work, wherever found, and all copies and plates so
seized.
Section 69
Section 79
25

26. Interpretation
Section 14 Arrest of Employees of Guruji.com
Under Sec 69 Offences by companies.-
Section 27 (1) Where any offence under this Act has been
committed by a company, every person who at the
time the offence was committed was in charge of,
Section 51 and was responsible to the company for, the
conduct of the business of the company, as well as
the company shall be deemed to be guilty of such
Section 63 offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against
and punished accordingly
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section
Section 64
(1), where an offence under this Act has been
committed by a company, and it is proved that the
offence was committed with the consent or
Section 69
connivance of, or is attributable to any negligence
on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or
Section 79 other officer of the company.
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27. Interpretation
Section 14
Section 27
The Information Technology Act 2008 (Amended
2010) does not provide certain intermediaries and
Section 51 platforms like Guruji.com with safe harbour against
Copyright violation.
Section 63 Central Government Act Section 79 in the Information
Technology Act, 2000 says that- information or data
made available by him if he proves that the offence or
Section 64
contravention was committed without his knowledge
or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent
the commission of such offence or contravention.
Section 69
Section 79
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