Indian Music label T-Series today obtained an interim injunction against Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Inc and Yahoo India from the Delhi High Court, contentSutra has learned. The Court issued a notice, in the interim, restraining Yahoo from streaming T-Series owned content on their portal Yahoo Video. T-Series is the largest music content publisher in India. Rahul Ajatshatru, Media & Entertainment Lawyer representing T-Series told ContentSutra that they had sent a cease and desist notice with certain samples of infringing material to Yahoo and its Indian subsidiary in February. In response to that, Yahoo sent back a standard response, taking refuge under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Yahoo did not remove the videos, and a reminder notice was sent in March, reiterating T-Series’ stand, alongwith more instances of infringing content. On not receiving a response from Yahoo, T-Series moved the Delhi High Court and obtained a restraining order.

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T-Series has been very active against copyright infringement - their case against YouTube comes up for hearing in July, while they had also filed a lawsuit against Rediff (NSDQ: REDF), following which Rediff obtained a license from them for iShare. The music co had also received a restraining order against Santabanta.com. Like Yahoo, other companies have also sought refuge under the DMCA, which is not applicable in India: saying that they’ll remove the infringing material when notified by copyright owners. The problem is, given the rate at which copyrighted content is uploaded on video sharing sites, the copyright owners will have to allocate substantial resources just for this purpose. At the same time, should the platform be held accountable for content that users put up? The argument is - if the platform benefits materially from this infringement (from advertising), they should be. What’s your take?

I contacted Yahoo India for a response, but at present they have no comment.