Delhi High Court Seeks ANI's Response On Mohak Mangal's Plea To Reinstate Copyright-Struck YouTube Videos

The Delhi High Court on Friday sought response of Asian News International (ANI) and YouTube on a plea moved by YouTuber Mohak Mangal seeking reinstatement of ten videos following copyright strike by the news agency.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued notice on Mangal's application and sought two weeks' time to ANI and YouTube to file their responses.

Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal along with Advocate Siddhant Kumar appeared for ANI. Mangal was represented by Senior Advocate Diya Kapur and Advocates Nakul Gandhi, Mujeeb and Tanish Gupta.

Kirpal said that ANI wanted to finish the matter and that Mangal should either pay the news agency or should edit the videos in question.

The suggestion was rejected by Kapur, saying that it was a free speech issue.

The Court then issued notice on Mangal's application and said that it will hear the parties finally and decide the issue.

The application has been filed in ANI's copyright and trademark infringement suit filed against Mohak Mangal. The case, which was initially filed before the district court, was later transferred to the High Court.

In his application, Mangal has said that the use of part of copyrighted content of ANI in his videos falls under the exception of fair use and fair dealing under Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957 and does not amount to infringement of copyright.

It further adds that the alleged infringing videos are also protected by the doctrine of de minimus.

Mangal has submitted that such a take down constitutes infringement and encroachment on his rights, in particular, his Fundamental Right of Freedom of Speech and Expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.

“It is submitted that the life-span of the videos uploaded by content creators generally ranges between certain days to weeks. The Defendant No. 2's policy provides for reinstatement of alleged infringing videos only upon final outcome of the lawsuit. The necessary corollary of the same is even if interim relief is denied by this Hon'ble Court to the Plaintiff, the alleged ten infringing videos will continue to remain to be taken down. Such take down and non-reinstatement on the part of the Defendant No. 2 is causing irreparable loss and harm to the Defendant No. 1,” the application states.

ANI had filed a defamation, disparagement and infringement suit before the Delhi High Court against Mangal and others over the YouTube video titled “Dear ANI”.

The suit also named comedian Kunal Kamra, AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair and unknown entities (john does) as defendants for sharing Mangal's video on their X Corp (formerly Twitter) handles.

On May 29, Mangal agreed to take down certain portions from his YouTube video which were offending as per the news agency.

ANI then filed a suit before the district court on June 02 impugning 10 videos posted by Mangal, alleging copyright and trademark infringement.

Title: ANI v. Mohak Mangal & Ors