Delhi HC grants relief to Universal Studios in movie piracy plea

The studio argued that while IMDb itself is a legitimate platform, rogue operators were exploiting its name to distribute pirated content

by e4m Staff
Published: May 13, 2026 6:23 PM | 1 min read

The Delhi High Court has provided interim relief to Universal Pictures in a case against online piracy involving rogue websites misusing the IMDb name.
Universal Studios reported that websites like "PlayIMDb" and "StreamIMDb" were illegally streaming its films, including Fast X and F9, without authorization.
The Court identified a prima facie case of copyright infringement and issued an injunction to stop these websites from their unauthorized activities.
The Court noted that the rogue sites were redirecting users from legitimate IMDb pages to illegal streaming platforms and had even provided instructions for accessing pirated content.

The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief to American film production company Universal Pictures in a case involving large-scale online piracy through rogue websites misusing the name of movie database IMDb.

Universal Studios informed the court that several websites, including “PlayIMDb” and “StreamIMDb,” were illegally uploading and streaming its films such as Fast X, F9 and The Secret Life of Pets 2 without authorisation. The studio argued that while IMDb itself is a legitimate platform, rogue operators were exploiting its name to distribute pirated content.

The Court noted that these websites were redirecting users from IMDb-related pages to illegal streaming platforms hosting Hollywood movies owned by Universal Studios. Observing a prima facie case of copyright infringement, the Court restrained the rogue entities from continuing such activities.

Justice Tushar Rao Gedela passed the injunction order on May 8, directing an immediate halt to the unauthorised streaming and misuse of IMDb’s name.

Universal Pictures told the Court that the rogue websites were facilitating pirated streaming of movies by manipulating and misusing IMDb URLs.

The Court observed that these illegal streaming platforms had created a system that redirected users from genuine IMDb movie pages to unauthorised websites hosting pirated content. It also noted that the operators had provided instructional material to help users access the illegal streams.