John Doe orders are back, it appears: Yash Raj Films have received an order from the The Delhi High Court, according to which Internet Service Providers will have to block websites that 'show' the movie Dhoom 3, within 48 hours of receiving a written complaint, as well as the URL of the site from Yash Raj Films, reports PTI. What's worth noting here is that the order will apply to all cable operators and ISPs that are not named in the petition, which indicates that this is a John Doe order, applicable against unnamed parties who the producer might hold guilty of infringement of their copyright. This is the first John Doe order we've heard of since November last year, when a Madras High Court judgment placed the onus of prevention of copyright infringement on ISPs. Note that the order hasn't been uploaded on the Delhi High Court website. We've requested Yash Raj Films for a copy of the order, and will update if we get a copy. Our Take What remains to be seen here is how the ISP's implement these John Doe orders: We haven't seen a copy of the court order, but in the past, production houses have asked for entire websites to be blocked. ISP's, not wishing to risk litigation, have implemented blocks en masse, instead of merely blocking the website link. In our opinion, ISP's are not responsible for what users access and do, and shouldn’t be held liable in court for infringement by specific websites.…
