justdial” will be use always. “askme.in” has to show error always

Back ground:

Burrp.com (Let it out) the local lifestyle listings company has been acquired by Infomedia18which is a part of the Network18 group. Burrp was funded by Haresh Chawla the CEO of Network18 group for an undisclosed sum. (Some says in 4.25 crore).Infomedia18 has launched the classifieds listings portal Askme.in.

Claimant:

Just dial (India’s no -1 local search engine) Mumbai based firm with a single national number 69999999 in 240 cities is containing database on million of telephone number which help people to get telephone numbers of various businesses, products and service providers. It `alleged' that a website called askme.in, which was in the same field of business, had taken its list of phone numbers and was using it as its own.

Action by claimant:

A suit was filed before the Delhi high court and along with arguments by claimant as the database is a "literary work as defined under the Copyright Act of 1957 and thus askme.in could not replicate it. As evidence, the court was told there were "identical spelling mistakes in the two databases, which suggested that both came from the same source.''

Literary work" includes computer programmes, tables and compilations including computer "literary data bases ;

People response:

Rajesh Khona (corporate head at Just dial ) said 1."We had painstakingly built a database of millions of telephone numbers over 14 years. It took hard work and a lot of effort to compile these numbers,''

2. "So we were taken aback when we discovered that a website had hijacked all our data and was using it to provide a similar service,''

3. "The legal victory is a huge boost for us,''

Court ruling:

The Delhi court passed an injunction order on 31 Jan, 2010 against askme.in and restrained it from carrying on with its business. Justice Indermeet Kaur observed that in case the order was not passed, JustDial would face "irreparable loss.''

A proof of copying database: There were "identical spelling mistakes in the two databases, which suggested that both came from the same source

The High Court has also appointed commissioners to visit Infomedia18 Ltd’s office in Delhi and Mumbai and to seize and take into custody all the CPUs, compact, floppy discs and/or other storage media containing any part of the commercial or business directory database belonging to Just Dial

The directive by the courts to direct askme.in to shut operations and cease to exist is also in favour of Justdial’s stance.
sources :times of india 2. pluggd.in 3. watchblog.com 4 .oneindia.in