While hearing a lawsuit filed by a teacher against Telegram and the people involved in sharing her copyrighted study material, the Delhi High Court has directed the messaging app to disclose the details of channels involved in the copyright infringement case in the country. The high court has asked the app to provide details in a sealed letter containing particulars of the channels, their mobile numbers, and IP addresses.
The Copyright Infringement Case Against Telegram
Neetu Singh, a teacher, and the complainant submitted a list of channels in her court filing that are circulating her lectures and books on competitive exams and selling the content at discounted prices. In the 51-page order dated August 30, the court said; “If there are any further list[s] of infringing channels, the same [must] be also submitted to Telegram within one week. The data relating to the infringing channels and the details as to the devices/servers/networks on which they are created, their creators, operators including any phone numbers, IP addresses, email addresses, used for this purpose shall be disclosed by Telegram within a period of two weeks thereafter.”
Telegram’s Response to the Court Orders
The Dubai-headquartered firm, Telegram, has said that disclosing user information would violate its privacy policy and the laws of Singapore, where the company has located its physical servers for storing user data. The counsel argued; “Telegram has its servers based in Singapore which has encrypted data. Accordingly, decryption of that data would not be permitted except as per the laws of Singapore.” To which, the court replied that the copyright owners couldn’t be left remediless against the actual infringers because Telegram has chosen to locate its servers in Singapore. The Court further added that in the present matter, infringement has to be “nipped in the bud”
Also read: Telegram Shared Private User Data With German Government Officials
