The Madras High court on Tuesday granted interim stay on the release of a pirated version of director Mani Ratnam’s latest movie O Kadhal Kanmani.

A single Bench granted the stay based on a civil suit filed by Mani Ratnam, representing Madras Talkies.

In the suit, he had sought a permanent injunction restraining 14 defendants including Google India, YouTube, BSNL, MTNL, Air Tel, Aircel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices from infringing his copyright on O Kadhal Kanmani in any manner.

“The telecom service providers, search engines and other sites against whom the suit is filed are intermediaries as defined under section 2(w) of the Information Technology Act and an intermediary with respect to electronic record means any person who receives, stores or transmits provided by any person,” said Ratnam in his petition.

These intermediaries unknowingly become channels of piracy in the internet. The Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules state that an intermediary shall observe with due diligence and inform the users not to host pirated content, he added.

He said that it has become a common practice to pirate the original version of the film and distribute it through digital devices across the world.

The director also said that there is no machinery to check the menace as the government has no control over the dissemination of pirated material on the internet.

The petitioner further sought leave of the court to permit him to file separate suit for claiming damages if any in future.

Justice K. Ravichandra Babu, who granted interim stay, adjourned the matter for six weeks.