Delhi HC Ordered Shutdown of 60 Shady Websites that Stream Zee Entertainment Content

In a recent ruling in Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited v. Bollyzone.tv and Ors, the Delhi High Court ordered sixty rogue websites to cease streaming TV series, films, and other works over which Zee had exclusive broadcast rights.

Additionally, Justice Mini Pushkarna has ordered domain name registrars (or their affiliates) to stop registering these fraudulent websites and to give Zee Entertainment access to all of their information, including name, address, phone number, email address, and IP address.

The Court ordered Internet service providers (ISPs) to prevent users from accessing these rogue websites that Zee had detected.

Zee has also been given permission by the court to notify the authorities of any such infringing websites that are found over the course of the lawsuit.

Furthermore, the Court ordered that a non-infringing website may approach the Court with an undertaking that it does not plan to engage in unapproved streaming of Zee's content if it is mistakenly barred.

Zee has petitioned the High Court for a permanent injunction to stop the obvious piracy of its programming as well as the violation of its broadcast reproduction and copyright rights.

It claimed that sixty rogue websites were pirating and streaming its content without permission in order to profit from it.

Among other things, it requested that registrars and ISPs reveal the information on these websites, that Google de-index rogue websites from search results, and that the domain names registered by these websites be blocked and suspended.

After taking into account Zee's arguments, the Court decided:

"In the above circumstances, the plaintiff has demonstrated a prima facie case for grant of injunction and, in case, no ex parte ad interim injunction is granted, the plaintiff will suffer an irreparable loss" .

As a result, it issued an ex parte interim injunction to Zee and scheduled a hearing for March 7, 2025.

Zee Entertainment was represented by advocates Sidharth Chopra, Vivek Ayyagari, Angad S. Makkar, Rishabh Rao, and Chanda Shashikant.

Google was represented by attorneys Neel Mason, Vihan Dang, Ujjawal Bhargava, and Aditya Mathur.