Anti-piracy: Three Indian companies file lawsuit against Songs.pk

The Calcutta High Court has upheld the complaint, asking ISPs to block access.

In a bid to contain music piracy, three Indian music companies have filed a lawsuit in a high court, seeking a ban on a popular website that allows free download of Indian and Pakistani songs without redistribution rights.

Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), a UK-based licensing company, Indian Music Industry (IMI) and music label Sagarika Pvt Ltd have moved the Calcutta High Court against Songs.pk, which hosts songs from Bollywood movies and independent music artists from India and Pakistan.

The high court has upheld the complaint, thus binding internet service providers to block access to the website. The court wants ISPs to deny access through DNS name blocking, IP address blocking via routers and DPI-based URL blocking.

According to ProPakistani, Songs.pk is operated by a Pakistani webmaster. The website receives millions of hits per month and has a global Alexa ranking of 891.