Sharing Movies on WhatsApp: Risk of Account Closure

Messaging applications are usually the most used option to send links to our acquaintances of all kinds of content. Among these contents you can sometimes find pirted content. And if you have sent the content by WhatsApp , your account may be closed.

This has been determined by a judge, after a group of users shared the action movie ” Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai “. Its launch was estimated for May 2020, but the pandemic forced it to be delayed, and finally they released it through premium Zee Plex video on demand at a “reasonable price” according to the creator, and digitally through ZEE5 on May 13, 2021.

Sharing Pirated Movies on WhatsApp

They get caught using WhatsApp to hack a movie

As is often the case when a movie is released this way, the demand to hack it was very high, and just a few hours after its release it was available for download. This did not please the company that distributed it, Zee Entertainment Enterprises , which discovered that there were copies circulating on WhatsApp and Telegram.

Despite its undoubted quality, as its 1.8 out of 10 rating on IMDb shows , the company reported the situation to the authorities, and they began to pursue the phone numbers involved in this activity, and began to take legal action. . In addition, its creator has also asked please that people do not pirte.

There are several defendants in the process. Among them are several people who distributed the film over the Internet , including on social networks, or made it easier for users to purchase it. There are also eight defendants whose phone numbers are already in the hands of the company, and who initially viewed, downloaded and stored the film without permission.

WhatsApp itself had also been accused in the process for not having taken action against users, despite the fact that its conditions of use expressly state that the company will deactivate or eliminate the accounts that are used for copyright infringement.

For this reason, the judge has found the eight users guilty of storing, reproducing, communicating, disseminating, circulating, copying, selling or offering copies of the film, through WhatsApp or any other means.

Two user accounts are suspended

In the case of WhatsApp, the judge has ordered the suspension of the WhatsApp accounts of two users who have not yet been identified. He has also told WhatsApp that when they are offered evidence that users of the application are infringing on Zee’s copyrights by selling copies of their films, the application must close the corresponding accounts within 24 hours.

There are three other users who have been identified through their mobile operators and whose data has been provided to Zee in just 72 hours. The case will continue on June 1.

This shows how dangerous it is to use the phone number with WhatsApp. In the case of Telegram, no person has been identified through the app, where it is possible to operate only using the handle, and in the case of channels or bots, it is not even known who manages it. India is the leading country for WhatsApp, and therefore it is not uncommon for someone to use it to hack, exposing their number and personal details in the process. Therefore, be careful when sending songs or long videos on WhatsApp if you do not have the rights to that content.