The Ernakulam district court restrained various Internet service providers from infringing the DVD copyright of the Malayalam Film ‘Ustad Hotel’, by uploading it and facilitating its download, through a John Doe or Asok Kumar order.
Though this order had been issued for some Hindi and Tamil films, this is a first in the Malayalam filmdom. John Doe or Asok Kumar order is directed against someone whose identity is not specifically mentioned or known when such a restraint order is sought or issued. District judge Jose Thomas issued the order in a suit filed by movie channel MD MC Sajithan, who owns the DVD right of the film.
Kochi-based Jadootech solutions has been doing the Internet protection of ‘Ustad Hotel’ since its release. The applicant had sought a John Doe order to cover all unknown persons to block all URL (Unique Resource Locator) carrying CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, Disc, VCD, cable TV, DTH, Internet service, pen drive MMS, Tapes, Hard drives, conditional Access System or in any other such medium.
The infringement by unknown persons could be checked only by blocking the URL, an address pointing to the resource from which a particular file is downloaded.