Viacom18 has secured an interim John Doe order from the Madras High Court restricting over 1250 identified and ‘all other unidentified’ websites, which might be deemed to host links to pirated content, prior to the launch of its movie Force 2. A John Doe order gives ISPs the power to block websites upon request from content owners (hence, 'unidentified' websites), without having to validate each block with the court. The court further directed 40 ISPs and other unidentified ISPs to block the given websites. Interestingly, the current John Doe order granted is for blocking entire websites rather than specific URLs. It's not clear how long the block is valid for. We've asked Viacom18 (which sent us a press release announcing this development) for a copy of the order. Note that the current ruling is unlike the ruling by the Bombay High Court for Eros’ petition to block entire website in July, when the HC ruled that John Doe orders apply only to specific URLs or subsections of a website that might infringe or have infringed copyrights in the past. While blocking specific URLs does increase the chance of a pirated copy popping up on the same website again, it ensures collateral damage is kept to a minimum. Websites like Vimeo or DailyMotion for example, could get blocked entirely for letting a cam-rip copy of a pirated film accidentally slip by. John Does orders have affected innocent parties: Blanket orders have affected parties who were not actually involved in piracy or…
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