Bengaluru: In a significant development, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday declined to quash the FIR against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate in a copyright infringement case against the leaders for 'unauthorised' use of a song from the movie 'KGF: Chapter 2' during the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra.
While refusing to quash the case, Justice M Nagaprasanna said the Congress leaders "seem to have taken the copyright of the complainant for granted". "The petitioners appear to have tampered with the source code without permission which would undoubtedly amount to infringement of the complainant's copyright," the judge observed.
Pertinently, the Court had heard both parties -- the Congress leaders and the complainant MRT Music -- on June 23 and reserved the orders. However, it clarified that the interim protection to Gandhi and others in December would continue till the case is disposed of.
Advocate Vikram Huilgol, representing the Congress leaders, argued that for an offence to be made out under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, the accused must knowingly infringe a copyright, and in this, "there was no intent to infringe the copyright". He also said the petitioners had not monetised the copyrighted content.
Advocate S Sriranga, representing MRT Music, however, said that even if it was presumed that no monetary gain was made, the petitioners still gained popularity through the entire exercise. He also underscored that the source code was meddled with by the petitioners and on that basis, infringement has been alleged. According to MRT Music's complaint, the video for the Bharat Jodo Yatra was created for the purpose of mass circulation on social media platforms, and it used popular sound recordings owned and held by the complainant.
Also read: KGF copyright infringement: High Court stays FIR against Rahul Gandhi, others
