The court issues a ``hyperdynamic injunction'' ordering the blocking of pirated sites that target movies and dramas that do not yet have copyrights.

On August 9, 2023, the Delhi High Court in India ruled on a case in which six film companies requested the blocking of pirated sites.At the time of the ruling, ``movies and dramas to be produced in the future'' for which copyright did not exist at the time of the decision were made. It is reported that a ``hyperdynamic injunction'' has been granted, making the matter subject to protection. This seems to be the first time in history that an injunction has been issued targeting a work for which there is no copyright.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI Date of decision: 9th August, 2023
(PDF file) https://torrentfreak.com/images/universallcitystudiosllcandorsvdtmoviesbabyandors-487890.pdf

Analysing “Dynamic+” Injunctions: Delhi High Court’s Latest Judicial Invention – Spicyip
https://spicyip.com/2023/09/analysing-dynamic-injunctions-delhi-high-courts-latest-judicial-invention.html

Hollywood's Latest Pirate Site Blocking Injunction Covers 'Future Content' * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/hollywoods-latest-pirate-site-blocking-injunction-covers-future-content-230907/

Until now, blocking of pirated sites has been carried out against domains specified by court injunctions. However, even if the specified domain was blocked, the pirated site would change the domain and resume its activities, making it a cat-and-mouse game. Therefore, in recent years, there have been cases where courts have issued dynamic injunctions that allow new domains and proxies to be added to the blocking targets at any time.

In India, which is known as a major movie country, there are many pirate sites that illegally release movies. According to Torrentfreak, a news site with detailed information on pirated sites, a pirated site that is said to have been illegally releasing the movie ' Vikram and Veda ' in 2022 has been hacked to 13,445 by 40 Indian Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The case was also blocked. Furthermore, in India, not only ISPs but also domain registrars such as Namecheap and GoDaddy have been ordered to comply with the blocking.

The lawsuit, brought by Universal City Studios, Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, Netflix Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Disney, asks ISPs and domain registrars to block 16 pirated sites. It was something to do. The Delhi High Court accepted the film company's argument and issued a hyper-dynamic injunction ordering the blocking of the relevant domain.

A general injunction becomes effective 'if the copyright of a specific work is violated,' but the injunction issued by the Delhi High Court this time is 'effective even if the copyright of a future work is violated.' Torrentfreak reports that this feature is revolutionary.

For example, if you wanted to prevent the publication of a work that was not copyrighted at the time the order was issued, it was previously necessary to request an injunction from the court each time. If the blocked pirated site changes its domain and comes back to life, and is illegally releasing only new movies and dramas produced after the order was issued, the movie company will have to request a new injunction from the court. It doesn't have to be.

However, the hyper-dynamic injunction granted this time also protects content that will be produced in the future. The Delhi High Court stated, ``Copyright in future works arises the moment the work is created, and it would probably be impossible to ask a court for an injunction every time a film or drama is produced in the future.'' said.

It is not clear at the time of writing this article how much of an impact this super-dynamic injunction will have, but the targeted pirated sites have cleverly changed their domains and are now selling new works whose copyrights were acquired after the order was issued. Even if you only release a movie or drama illegally, you will automatically be subject to the order.

However, legal scholar Reva Satish Makhija said, ``While the Delhi High Court's attempt to protect the rights of plaintiffs from potential infringement by defendants is well-intentioned, its effectiveness in balancing the interests of the parties is questionable.'' 'Further consideration is required from this perspective,' he said, arguing that there should be more discussion about hyperdynamic injunctions.