Today, On 15th October, The Delhi High Court protected singer Kumar Sanu’s personality and publicity rights, ordering removal of objectionable videos from social media. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said a detailed interim injunction will safeguard his name, voice, style, and likeness.
The Delhi High Court safeguarded the personality and publicity rights of singer Kumar Sanu, ordering the removal of objectionable videos about him from social media.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora stated that a detailed interim injunction would be issued to protect Sanu’s rights and mandate the removal of the offending content.
The court was addressing Sanu’s petition, which sought protection of his personality and publicity rights, encompassing his name, voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements and interpretations, mannerisms, images, caricatures, photographs, likeness, and signature.
Sanu is also seeking protection against unauthorized or unlicensed use and commercial exploitation by third parties, which could lead to public confusion or deception and dilute his rights.
During the proceedings, the court noted that the counsel for one defendant indicated that Sanu had raised concerns about four profiles on Facebook and Instagram, and that the 334 URLs provided by the plaintiff had become inaccessible.
The lawsuit, filed by advocates Shikha Sachdeva and Sana Raees Khan, alleges violations of Sanu’s moral rights in his performances as conferred by the Copyright Act. The petition claims that the defendants are infringing upon Sanu’s personality and publicity rights by utilizing his name, voice, likeness, and persona.
Recently, Bollywood figures such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her husband Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, filmmaker Karan Johar, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, “Art of Living” founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and journalist Sudhir Chaudhary also approached the high court for protection of their personality and publicity rights, receiving interim relief.
The right to publicity, commonly referred to as personality rights, allows individuals to protect, control, and profit from their image, name, or likeness.
Sanu is troubled by GIFs, audio, and video recordings of his performances and voice that tarnish his reputation and subject him to “unsavoury humour,” thereby violating his moral rights in his performances.
He is also concerned about content generated using artificial intelligence (AI) that imitates his voice, vocal style, and technique, along with the alteration of his image, including the creation of merchandise.
The suit stated,
“Such merchandise and audios/videos of the plaintiff generate revenue for the defendants, as they are uploaded and streamed on social networking websites, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, which generate revenue based on the number of clicks or views to a particular image/video,”
It added,
“Such acts also amount to an attempt at false endorsements and passing off and hence, must be restrained by an order of injunction by this court,”
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