While granting injunction to FanCode against rogue sports streaming websites, the Delhi High Court has restrained four rogue domains from pirating Formula 1, Saudi Pro League, ATP Tour, Afghanistan T20s, Copa del Rey, Masters and USGA broadcasts. The Court also directed registrars to suspend and lock the infringing domains within 24 hours and disclose complete registrant, KYC, IP and access log data within 6 weeks in password-protected form, while ISPs were ordered to block access to the listed domains and any mirror or variant within 24 hours.
The Court found that FanCode’s exclusive broadcast reproduction rights under Section 37 of the Copyright Act, 1957 across seven sporting properties were prima facie recognised, with the Court placing reliance on its own line of John Doe orders protecting live sports streaming. The Court also reaffirmed that any injunction against hydra-headed pirate websites must extend to mirror, redirect and alphanumeric variants to remain effective.
While underscoring that piracy of live sporting content must be curbed with a heavy hand, the High Court emphasised that the commercial value of each event is exhausted within its duration and any delay in blocking causes irreparable breach of exclusive rights and revenue loss.
A Single Judge Bench of Justice Jyoti Singh noted that the Plaintiff enjoys Broadcast Reproduction Rights under Section 37 of the Copyright Act, 1957 in respect of the live broadcasts of events covered under the seven agreements, and that the documents on record prima facie established that on Sep 04, 2026, each of Defendants No. 1 to 4 was making available to the public in India the very same Italian Grand Prix session, with several streams carrying Plaintiff’s registered FANCODE trademark embedded within the feed, indicating piracy of Plaintiff’s own signal.
The Court further observed that the adoption by Defendant No. 2 of ‘faancode’, ‘fankode’, ‘Fancodee’, ‘fancodeallrounder’ and ‘FanCode Live’ as domain names and website identifiers, for the identical service of sports streaming, constituted prima facie infringement of the FANCODE trademarks and was calculated to pass off its services as those of the Plaintiff.
The Court also placed reliance on its earlier decision in Universal City Studios LLC. and Others v. Dotmovies Baby [2023 SCC OnLine Del 4955], where it was held that any injunction granted by a Court of law ought to be effective in nature and to keep pace with the dynamic nature of infringement undertaken by hydra-headed websites, a ‘Dynamic+’ injunction ought to be granted, extending to mirror/redirect websites and alphanumeric variations of the injuncted websites, so that no irreparable loss is caused to the owners of the works.
Briefly, Sporta Technologies Private Limited, which operates the digital sports streaming platform ‘FanCode’ (launched in 2019), approached the Delhi High Court against John Doe and others, seeking an ex parte ad interim injunction against rogue websites illegally streaming sporting events for which the Plaintiff holds exclusive broadcasting rights in India. The Plaintiff has secured exclusive broadcasting rights through seven key agreements: (i) the ACB Agreement with the Afghanistan Cricket Board for three T20 Internationals; (ii) the F1 Agreement with Formula One World Championship Limited covering 2026–2028; (iii) the SPL Agreement with IMG Media Limited for the Saudi Pro League; (iv) the Copa del Rey Agreement with LA LIGA and Peak Sport Media Limited; (v) the ATP Agreement with ATP Media Operations Limited; (vi) the Masters Agreement with Augusta National, Inc.; and (vii) the USGA Agreement with the United States Golf Association.
The Plaintiff’s case is that Defendants No. 1 to 4 are rogue websites engaged in the unauthorised livestreaming of these events in India. Defendant No. 1 operates ‘WeStreamF1’, Defendant No. 2 operates nine sub-domains of pages.dev using variants of the FANCODE trademark, Defendant No. 3 operates ‘Stream East’, and Defendant No. 4 operates ‘Live TV’. On Sep 04, 2026, all four Defendants were found streaming Practice 1 of the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio d’Italia 2026, with Defendant No. 2 even embedding Plaintiff’s registered FANCODE trademark on its feed. The Plaintiff had previously filed a similar suit, where Defendant No. 2 was also arrayed as a party, and this Court had prima facie observed violation of Plaintiff’s broadcast reproduction rights. Given the speed at which pirate identities remain unknown and the short-lived value of live events, the Plaintiff sought a ‘Dynamic+’ injunction covering mirror, redirect, and alphanumeric variant websites, with real-time blocking of infringing URLs.
