Viacom18 has received a "John Doe" order for the film Gangs Of Wasseypur from the Bombay High Court, reports LegallyIndia. This is the first instance of the Bombay High Court granting a John Doe order in the recent past, but it is a continuation of an unfortunate trend of movie studios filing for John Doe orders, and courts granting them. The Delhi High Court and the Madras High Court have both granted John Doe orders for blocking websites in the past. John Doe orders allow movie studios to push ISPs to indiscriminately block access to video sharing, filesharing and torrenting sites, apart from (bizarrely) code sharing sites like PasteBin. The maximum impact that we've seen of the John Doe order was in case of the recent order received from the Madras High Court, for the films 3 and Dammu, which led to the blocking of several websites, including Dailymotion, Vimeo and The Pirate Bay (a complete list here). The blocks have resulted in attacks on Reliance Communications, which was the first ISP to block the sites. A few things: - We don't quite know how long the order for 3 and Dammu will be in operation, but if movie studios are coordinating amongst themselves for these John Doe orders, then it is likely that the movie studios will keep some sites blocked indefinitely unless a Court refuses to grant a John Doe order, or an ISP refuses to comply. ISPs are unlikely to refuse to comply because they're spineless. New movies…
