The Delhi High Court has come up with yet another landmark
judgment in copyright enforcement case. The Court, in Warner
Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Ors. v. Mr. Santosh V.G. (CS (OS)
No. 1682/2006), reaffirmed that importing original DVDs and renting
them out in India constitutes copyright infringement under the
Copyright Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as
"Act").
Warner Bros. (hereinafter referred to as "Plaintiff"),
in the instant case, alleged that defendant was the
proprietor/partner of a concern by the name and style of,
Cinema Paradiso, which carried out the business of
offering movie titles on rental basis. The defendant was also
offering original DVDs of movie titles, that he had imported from
the USA. Plaintiff contended that he is the copyright owner of the
rental titles by virtue of International Copyright Order, 1999 read
with section 40(a) of the Act. Plaintiff further claimed that under
section 14(d)(ii) of the Copyright Act, 1957; copyright owner
