The Delhi High Court on Friday summoned news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) concerning a copyright infringement and plagiarism case filed against them by Asian News International (ANI).
The summons comes after ANI accused PTI of copying their videos showing passengers on a Delhi-Darbhanga Spicejet flight enduring nearly an hour without air conditioning during a severe heat wave on June 19.
In its argument, ANI claimed that the longer and shorter versions of the video from inside the flight were shot by its video team. However, once the videos were sent to ANI’s feed and aired on their X account, PTI published identical videos as well.
The incident occurred on June 19 during a severe heat wave in the country.
According to a Bar and Bench report, ANI is now seeking damages of over Rs 2 crores and a permanent injunction restraining PTI from publishing any other original works of the plaintiff (ANI).
Meanwhile, Justice Mini Pushkarna, who is hearing the case, has asked PTI to file its response and scheduled the case for further hearing on August 9.
PTI’s Stance
Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, who is representing PTI, stated that the news agency would take down the videos within 24 hours but ANI’s counsel, represented by Senior Advocate Chander M Lall and advocate Sidhant Kumar, pushed for an apology and clarification from PTI to the news publications that credited the report to PTI.
“They must take down and acknowledge that it is my work. They must apologize. They must write to all the newspapers who published the report as PTI feed. PTI has been stealing my feeds,” Bar and Bench quoted Lall.
Despite this, PTI’s Rao has argued against the need for an apology, claiming that the video was third-party content
“There is no apology needed. There is something more that needs to be said here. We had said that it [the video] is third-party content,” Rao said.
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