wordpress blog stats
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Why did the Delhi High Court restrict use of Amitabh Bachchan’s image and voice?

The order raises important questions about how to to protect IPR of a public figure whilst securing people’s right to expression

The Delhi High Court has restricted the use of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan’s likeness and voice in an interim order, according to a report in Bar and Bench.

  • A single-judge bench, comprising Justice Navin Chawla, passed the order in a suit filed by Amitabh Bachchan which sought an order preventing the use of his “name, image, voice or any of his characteristics” without his consent, the report added.
  • He has also sought a restraining order against book publishers, T-shirt vendors and various other businesses, as per Bar and Bench.

FREE READ of the day by MediaNama: Click here to sign-up for our free-read of the day newsletter delivered daily before 9 AM in your inbox.


Why it matters: It is important to make note of the suit because it casts the spotlight on India’s intellectual property rights (IPR) laws. The order raises important questions about how to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) of a public figure whilst securing people’s right to expression. It is also a timely reminder that the Indian government may need to relook at the IPR laws of the country.

What did the court say: The court said that a prima facie case was made out in favour of the actor and against the defendants, LiveLaw reported. Justice Chawla said that the defendants appear to be using Bachchan’s celebrity status without his permission, it added.

  • He directed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to order internet service providers to pull down all links mentioned in the suit, Bar and Bench said.
  • He also ordered telecom service providers to block access to all phone numbers used by the defendants to circulate messages on messaging apps, like WhatsApp, the report added.

What did the suit argue: App developers were using Bachchan’s name, image and voice to run lotteries by associating their apps with Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), a show hosted by Bachchan, LiveLaw reported.

  • Bachchan was represented by Harish Salve who argued that these were scams being conducted under the garb of lotteries. Salve also argued that Bachchan’s face had been on t-shirts and there were domain names like “amitabhbachchan.com” and “amitabhbachchan.in”.
  • The suit seeks a John Doe order which raises an interesting question of whether impersonators can earn a livelihood by impersonating Bachchan’s personality who is probably India’s most prominent actor.
  • The suit also seeks an order for damages to the sum of Rs 2,00,01,000 in favour of the actor and against the defendants on account of loss of his reputation and goodwill, according to LiveLaw.

This post is released under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. Please feel free to republish on your site, with attribution and a link. Adaptation and rewriting, though allowed, should be true to the original.

Also read:

Written By

I cover several beats such as Crypto, Telecom, and OTT at MediaNama. I can be found loitering at my local theatre when I am off work consuming movies by the dozen.

Free Reads

News

Telecom companies are against a regulatory sandbox, as they think information revealed by businesses during the sandboxing process might be confidential should be out...

News

According to a statement, the executive body of the European Union had also sought internal documents on the risk assessments and mitigation measures for...

News

The newly launched partially open-sourced LLM Grok-1 can be commercially used but not trademarked.

MediaNama’s mission is to help build a digital ecosystem which is open, fair, global and competitive.

Views

News

NPCI CEO Dilip Asbe recently said that what is not written in regulations is a no-go for fintech entities. But following this advice could...

News

Notably, Indus Appstore will allow app developers to use third-party billing systems for in-app billing without having to pay any commission to Indus, a...

News

The existing commission-based model, which companies like Uber and Ola have used for a long time and still stick to, has received criticism from...

News

Factors like Indus not charging developers any commission for in-app payments and antitrust orders issued by India's competition regulator against Google could contribute to...

News

Is open-sourcing of AI, and the use cases that come with it, a good starting point to discuss the responsibility and liability of AI?...

You May Also Like

News

Google has released a Google Travel Trends Report which states that branded budget hotel search queries grew 179% year over year (YOY) in India, in...

Advert

135 job openings in over 60 companies are listed at our free Digital and Mobile Job Board: If you’re looking for a job, or...

News

By Aroon Deep and Aditya Chunduru You’re reading it here first: Twitter has complied with government requests to censor 52 tweets that mostly criticised...

News

Rajesh Kumar* doesn’t have many enemies in life. But, Uber, for which he drives a cab everyday, is starting to look like one, he...

MediaNama is the premier source of information and analysis on Technology Policy in India. More about MediaNama, and contact information, here.

© 2008-2021 Mixed Bag Media Pvt. Ltd. Developed By PixelVJ

Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Name:*
Your email address:*
*
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

© 2008-2021 Mixed Bag Media Pvt. Ltd. Developed By PixelVJ