Watch Barbel Pitch Meetings’ YouTube video here: [ Video | English-translated version using Sarvam ]
“I haven’t seen censorship operating at this scale anywhere else,” said a US-based Telugu YouTube movie reviewer, Sushanth, who runs Barbel Pitch Meetings, in a video he posted to explain and expose how Bengaluru-based AI Plex is (mis)using legal notices for online censorship and to curb free speech related to critical reviews of a few major Telugu movies.
“Even now, there are more than ten active cases against me. They keep filing in the same courts, routing them through Bangalore, and serving them to me one after another. My estimate for the end of this year? If it’s ten-plus now, I think we’re looking at 20 by December,” he added.
What is happening? On June 3, the Telugu film Peddi premiered. As usual, following the release, online discussion began, and many viewers and YouTubers commented on the film. Sushanth (Barbel Pitch Meetings) and “Ra One for You” were among those who commented on the film. When Barbel uploaded its review of Peddi, the film’s team allegedly sent a copyright notice. He removed the video and later re-uploaded it without any visual references to Peddi. The first uploaded video used a Peddi promotional image along with short clips from the film’s trailers and teasers.
Watch Sushanth (Barbel) Peddi movie review here: [ YouTube Video | Translation ]
Quick note: Using images or clips for criticism does not constitute copyright infringement; Section 52 of India’s Copyright Act lists acts that do not constitute copyright infringement. These include:
- criticism;
- news reporting;
- personal use;
- research purposes;
- educational and judicial reproduction;
- public library copying, and
- reproduction of government/legislative documents, judgments, or official gazettes.
Apart from Barbel, Peddi’s legal team managed to take down the reviews of Rehaman, who runs “Ra One For You.” He made his review of Peddi private. These are the URLs specified in the screenshots of the legal notice: [ Video URL | YT Short URL ].
After they got him to remove the video, he said:
- “As far as I’m concerned, I did nothing wrong in that video. I covered the positives, I covered the negatives. You can’t just throw a legal case because someone gave an honest review. The thumbnail was clear, it was labelled a review, I didn’t use any extreme language. And for what it’s worth, the video got around 1.5 lakh views — I didn’t even make much money from it. Despite all that, they filed a case against me, citing my channel and sending a formal email.”
- How will you stop public opinion from going offline? “How many cases is he planning to file? Public talk is…
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