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Delhi Court restrains Unacademy from using ANI’s copyrighted content on YouTube
The order came in response to a copyright infringement suit filed by ANI, which is also seeking a permanent injunction and damages of Rs 5 lakh for alleged plagiarism, piracy, and unjust enrichment.
The court also directed Google to take down or block access to the infringing videos on YouTube.
A Delhi court has directed ed-tech platform Unacademy to stop using content owned by Asian News International (ANI) on its YouTube channel ‘Pathfinder by Unacademy’.
The order came in response to a copyright infringement suit filed by ANI, which is also seeking a permanent injunction and damages of Rs 5 lakh for alleged plagiarism, piracy, and unjust enrichment, according to reports.
District Judge Hemani Malhotra of the Patiala House Courts issued an interim order restraining ‘Pathfinder by Unacademy’ from using ANI’s original videos or any copyrighted material. The platform is barred from posting, uploading, republishing, distributing, or using such content in any form. The court further directed Google to take down or block access to the infringing videos on YouTube.
ANI has been actively pursuing legal action against several YouTubers accused of copying its original footage without authorization, with claims reportedly going up to Rs 40 lakh in some cases.
While ANI argues that it invests significant resources, including journalists, camera crews, and equipment, to create exclusive news footage, Unacademy has claimed “fair use” as its defense.
The ed-tech firm maintains that its videos offer original narration, critique, and analysis of news events, tailored to help UPSC aspirants, and thus fall within permissible use under the Copyright Act, 1957.
ANI, however, contends that Unacademy is leveraging its content purely for commercial gain. “It is clearly exploiting the original works of the Plaintiff for its commercial benefit,” the suit claims.
Although Unacademy had initially apologized to ANI and assured it would refrain from using the content again, it later filed counter-strikes on YouTube asserting its right to fair use, prompting ANI to move forward with the legal action.
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