NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has restrained several websites from illegally broadcasting popular films and shows like "Friends", "Stranger Things", "Squid Game" and "Wonder Woman", and ordered that they be blocked.
Justice Tejas Karia passed the direction against over 160 websites on a plea filed by Warner Bros Entertainment Inc, which said it was the author, owner or exclusive distributor of the films and shows in India, and therefore entitled to protection under the intellectual property laws.
While passing the interim order, the court observed that the studio had made out a prima facie case for the grant of ex parte relief, else irreparable injury and significant financial losses would be caused to it.
"Defendant Nos.1 to 47 (the infringing entities), its owners, partners are restrained from, in any manner hosting, streaming, reproducing, distributing, making available to the public and/or communicating to the public, or facilitating the same on their websites through the internet in any manner whatsoever, the Plaintiffs' Copyrighted Works, i.e., cinematographic work/content/programme/show in relation to which Plaintiffs have copyright or exclusive distribution rights/and or any other right," said the court in its order dated December 18, 2025.
Warner Bros Entertainment Inc claimed that the infringing websites indulged in online piracy by providing access to its protected content of shows and films like "Friends", "Stranger Things" -Seasons 1-4, "Squid Game" - Season 1, "Finding Dory", "The Jungle Book", "Suicide Squad", "Wonder Woman", "A Star Is Born" and "The Conjuring 2", and made it available for download illegally.
The court took note of the "hydra-headed nature" of the infringing websites and granted a "dynamic+ injunction" against them to tackle the "imminent possibility" of the copyrighted works being uploaded on infringing websites or their newer versions immediately.
The court also directed the domain name registrars to lock and suspend the infringing websites and file all the basic subscriber information, including the name, address, contact information, email addresses, bank details, IP logs, and any other relevant information available of the owners/operators of websites in a sealed cover/password-protected document within four weeks.
It further asked internet service providers to block access to the infringing websites.