The makers of 'Gangs of Wasseypur' have received a 'John Doe' order from the Bombay High Court, that will prevent piracy of the movie. Wondering what or who that is? We at in.com break it down for you...
Who the heck is John Doe? A name used in a situation where a party's title is unknown. The John Doe order (or an Ashok Kumar order, as it is known in India) passed by the Bombay HC (in picture) in the case of 'Gangs of Wasseypur' refers to unknown parties who might pirate the film. Photo: MiD DAY
Is this a first? According to Viacom 18's lawyers, this is the first Ashok Kumar order passed by the Bombay High Court, though other courts in the past including the Delhi HC and Madras HC have passed similar orders for movies, that include 'Thank You', 'Speedy Singhs', 'Loot', 'Players' and Dhanush-starrer '3'.
So why the Kolaveri? After the Madras HC injunction, internet service providers blocked a host of fire sharing and hosting sites like Dailymotion, Vimeo and The Pirate Bay, leading to outrage among Indian webizens. The Indian wing of hacktivist group Anonymous even attacked government websites including CERT.in and websites for political parties and service provider MTNL.
What do filmmakers say? After angry folks on the internet criticized GoW director Anurag Kashyap on Twitter, the director retorted, 'When my films were pirated my investors and studio never blamed me for it but when the studio got a JD order for Gow, the internet blames me. Whatever has to happen it will happen. I am proud of the film i have made n rest i am not going to reply to any accusations of the JD order'. [sic] (In picture: Anurag with the cast and crew of Gangs of Wasseypur at the Cannes Film Festival)
