Delhi High Court orders blocking of piracy sites streaming Stranger Things, Friends and other global hits

The Delhi High Court has moved to strengthen protections for global entertainment companies by ordering the blocking of several websites found to be illegally hosting pirated films and television series, including popular international titles across streaming and studio portfolios. These include Stranger Things, Friends, Batman, The Squid Game, The Jungle Book and others.

In a recent ruling, Justice Tejas Karia granted a “dynamic plus” injunction in favour of Warner Bros., Netflix, Apple, Disney and Crunchyroll, enabling the companies to act swiftly against online piracy of their copyrighted works. The order allows rights holders to bring under its ambit not only the websites named in the suit but also any mirror sites, redirects or alphanumeric variations that emerge in their place.

The court emphasised that copyright protection attaches at the moment of creation and that judicial remedies must keep pace with the evolving tactics of piracy networks, which frequently reappear under new domain names soon after enforcement action. Without such intervention, the court noted, rights holders face the risk of immediate and irreparable commercial harm.

The case was brought by members of the Motion Picture Association, who argued that repeated takedown notices had failed to curb infringement. Despite prior enforcement efforts, the plaintiffs contended, the websites continued to stream and enable downloads of copyrighted content, resulting in significant financial losses.

After reviewing the evidence, the court found that the plaintiffs were the rightful owners of the copyrighted material and that the infringing platforms were facilitating real-time streaming and downloads without authorisation. It concluded that the scale and immediacy of the infringement justified urgent judicial action.

As part of the order, domain name registrars were directed to lock and suspend the identified websites within 72 hours and to submit basic subscriber information to the court in a sealed cover. Internet service providers were also instructed to block access to the infringing domains within the same timeframe, reinforcing the court’s effort to curb the rapid spread of pirated content online.