New Delhi: In a case of alleged copyright infringement, the Delhi High Court on Friday issued summons to news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) after a lawsuit filed by rival Asian News International (ANI).
The lawsuit pertains to a video shot by ANI on June 19, 2024, which captured the plight of passengers on a Delhi-Darbhanga SpiceJet flight suffering due to a malfunctioning air conditioning system during the peak of a heatwave. ANI claims PTI published identical videos, both longer and shorter versions, moments after ANI distributed the footage on its feed and social media.
ANI has sought damages exceeding ₹2 crore and a permanent injunction to prevent PTI from publishing any of their original work in future. Senior Advocate Chander M Lall, representing ANI, argued that PTI must remove the videos and also issue a public apology and clarify to news outlets that received the report through PTI’s feed about the original source of the video.
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“They must take down the videos and acknowledge that it is my work. An apology is necessary. They need to write to all the newspapers who published the report based on the PTI feed. PTI has a history of stealing my feeds,” argued Lall.
However, PTI contested these claims through Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao. Rao stated that PTI would remove the videos within 24 hours but refuted the need for an apology, claiming the video was attributed to a third party source. He further argued that ANI itself might be guilty of similar practices.
“There is no apology needed. There’s more to this story… We had mentioned it (the video) as third-party content,” Rao countered.
While the court initially suggested mediation between the two news agencies, ANI’s counsel opposed the proposal. The court ultimately issued summons to PTI, and both parties indicating that they would discuss the matter further.
