Copyright violation: HC orders ‘Flying Beast’ to take down two videos

The court was hearing a copyright infringement suit against Taneja filed by Castrol India Ltd, a manufacturer of automobile lubricants

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has directed YouTuber Gaurav Taneja, popularly known as the ‘Flying Beast’, to remove two videos from his YouTube channel which were infringing Castrol India Ltd’s copyrights. The videos were shot during Castrol’s promotional campaign in the United States, but Taneja neither credited the company nor promoted the campaign in them, justice Riyaz Chagla observed while granting interim relief to the firm.

Copyright violation: HC orders ‘Flying Beast’ to take down two videos

The court was hearing a copyright infringement suit against Taneja filed by Castrol India Ltd, a manufacturer of automobile lubricants.

According to the petition, in April 2024, the company undertook a campaign titled ‘Castronomy’, wherein video bloggers were commissioned to capture zero-gravity flight experiences in the United States. Castrol India bore the travel, accommodation and participation costs for bloggers, in lieu of which they were required to produce content promoting the campaign and the company.

Taneja travelled to the US and participated in the campaign with American YouTuber Eric Decker in May, shooting videos and photographs of the event over three days, Castrol India stated in the petition. On October 29 and November 1, he uploaded two videos on his YouTube channel titled ‘Ready to go in Zero Gravity with @airrack’ and ‘Flying in zero gravity’ respectively but did not give any credit to Castrol or promote the ‘Castronomy’ campaign, the company alleged.

Castrol India made several requests to Taneja to remove the videos from his YouTube channel and even offered him ₹5 lakh to take down the content, but to no avail, the company said in the petition, seeking removal of the videos and photos from his social media accounts.

In the order dated December 4, justice Chagla observed that prima facie, Castrol appeared to be the producer of the content and the first owner of the copyright, and Taneja unauthorisedly uploaded and leveraged the content on his social media accounts.