Mumbai: FIR against Sunder Pichai, others in copyright 'violation' case

A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered on court orders against Google, its CEO Sunder Pichai and five other employees of the company in an alleged copyright violation case, city police said on Wednesday.

The search engine giant said in its reaction that it has a set mechanism which copyright owners can use to protect their content on platforms such as YouTube. As per a police official, the case was registered at the MIDC Police Station in suburban Andheri on the orders of a magistrate's court on Tuesday evening.

Film director and producer Suneel Darshan had approached the court seeking registration of a case against Google and its top officials over alleged copyright infringement, he said, without giving more information about the nature of the copyright violation.


When contacted for reaction, a Google spokesperson in India said the company relies on copyright owners to notify it of unauthorized uploads and offers them "rights management tools, such as YouTube's Content ID system that gives rights holders an automated way to identify, block, promote, and even make money from uploads of their content."

"When a copyright holder notifies us of a video that infringes their copyright, we remove the content promptly in accordance with the law, and terminate the accounts of users with multiple copyright strikes," the spokesperson added.