KGF Music Copyright Issue: Karnataka HC Stays Order To Block Twitter Accounts Of Congress

The Karnataka High Court stayed the Bengaluru court's order that is subject to the party removing all copyrighted post from their official social media platforms.

New Delhi: The Karnataka High Court stayed a lower court's order to block the Twitter accounts of Congress and the Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign for allegedly violating copyright norms.

According to reports, the Karnataka High Court stayed the Bengaluru court's order that is subject to the party removing all copyrighted post from their official social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram.

Notably, the Bengaluru court had in its order said the music label specifically produced a CD showing the original version of the copyrighted work with that of the illegally synchronised version. In its order, the court directed Twitter to take down three links from the two handles and ordered it to block the Twitter handles of the Congress and Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign.

Following the court's order, the Congress tweeted, “We have read on social media about an adverse order from a Bengaluru court against INC & BJY SM handles. We were neither made aware of nor present at court proceedings. No copy of the order has been received. We are pursuing all the legal remedies at our disposal.”

This comes days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and two others were booked for allegedly using two songs from a movie without permission during Bharat Jodo Yatra.

According to reports, three senior Congress leaders – Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya – were booked under the provisions of Copyright Act, the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code under sections 120b (for criminal conspiracy), 403 (for dishonest misappropriation of property), and 465 (for forgery), for unauthorised usage of the songs from blockbuster Kannada film 'KGF-2' during the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The FIR was registered in the Yashwanthpur police station on Friday based on a complaint lodged by M Naveen Kumar, who manages MRT music.

According to the complainant, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had on his official Twitter handle posted two videos of the Bharat Jodo yatra, in which popular songs from the movie KGF-2 were used without permission.