The court in India ordered Telegram to reveal the personal data of persons who are suspected of distributing a material that violates copyright.
In accordance with the court decision on November 24, Telegram revealed information about the channels that illegally distributed the training materials of the private educational company Campus Private Limited and its teacher of Nitu Singh for various competitive exams. Discovered data contain:
- The names of the channel administrators;
- phone numbers;
- IP addresses of channels.
A copy of the specified data will be provided to the lawyer of the plaintiffs not to distribute information to a third party, except for state authorities and the police. The Telegram written readings and the data table transmitted to the court will be stored in a sealed form. February 14, 2023 they will be transferred to the court for consideration of the case.
earlier, during the proceedings, the court rejected the Telegram argument that it cannot share the data of owners or users of the channels, since the information is stored on Telegram servers in Singapore, and the law prohibits the disclosure of personal data.
The court noted that despite the fact that Telegram blocks channels that distribute materials that violate copyrights, users create new channels and work in private mode. “Thus, the works of the plaintiffs freely spread, despite the trial, and the criminals act under disguised names. Repeated channel blocking is not enough,” the court said.