Exclusive: Pocket FM and Kuku FM end legal spat over copyright

Pocket FM and Kuku FM have reached a settlement over a copyright violation-related case between the two in Delhi High Court. 

The two parties entered into an agreement on December 16, 2022, and submitted the same to the court on December 21, 2022, according to a court filing reviewed by Entrackr.

Backstory

In May 2022, Pocket FM, an on-demand platform for podcasts and audiobooks, moved the Delhi HC alleging that its competitor, Kuku FM, was violating Indian copyright law by publishing audio summaries of a few books that it said it had an exclusive license for. 

The books whose copyright Pocket FM accused Kuku of violating included Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad; Jay Shetty’s Think Like A Monk; Deepak Bajaj’s Be A Network Marketing Millionaire; and Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog.

Pocket FM signed a deal in March last year with Manjul Publishing House, a major publisher of translated titles that held the Hindi rights to these books. This agreement, Pocket FM said, gave exclusive audio rights to these books, which it claimed Kuku FM was violating by publishing summaries of the titles. 

Separately, Kuku FM had reached Delhi HC alleging Pocket FM had violated its exclusive copyright for a book on Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The court had directed Pocket FM to take down the book from its platform.

Settlement

Following the settlement, Kuku FM has opted to pull down content whose exclusive right was held by the rival Pocket FM.

“Kuku FM undertakes to take down the Impugned Works forthwith from the Kuku FM platform and further undertakes to not to violate the rights of Pocket FM in the Impugned Works till the rights subsist in the name of Pocket FM or the rights are acquired by Kuku FM,” as per the settlement agreement between the two firms reviewed by Entrackr.

The settlement also ensures Pocket FM and Kuku FM drop the case between the two over the book on Israeli intelligence agency Mossad as mentioned above.

Sanchith Shivakumar, one of the counsels who represented Pocket FM in this matter, said in a statement that the case sets a “much needed precedent on the issue of audiobook summaries, which are becoming worryingly rampant in the market.” 

“These audiobook summaries actively lure users away from original/licensed works leading to a complete dilution of the copyright owner's economic rights. Consequently, this could be a big win for publishers and copyright owners,” he added.

Entrackr has also reached out to Kuku FM and will update the story as soon as we hear from them. 

That said, copyright issues globally have been a tricky affair. The Pocket FM vs Kuku FM case, however, reflects the grey area in such matters wherein a lengthy synopsis or summary could be used to publish the copyrighted or licensed materials. While the case is a bit unique to the audio streaming space in India, Big Tech is hard at work to solve the copyright violation problem.