IRIB’s Lawsuit Against Aparat Settled

The legal battle between Iran’s largest online video hosting website Aparat and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has been settled.

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad Javad Azari announced, “With the ministry’s intervention, the dispute has been settled for the time being,” Mehr News Agency reported.

Azari also said the Ministry of Culture and IRIB are in charge of overseeing the activities of the companies offering video on demand services.

“Since these services are Internet based and would boost the use of the National Information Network, the ministry has a supportive approach to them,” he said.

The tech official also said that his ministry aims to facilitate VOD companies’ activities and will not intervene with the rulings of IRIB or Ministry of Culture.

Azari noted that three national bodies are in charge of regulating content offered on the Internet.

These three are the High Council of Cyberspace, IRIB and the Ministry of Culture.

This means VOD and Internet Protocol TV services will both be regulated by the same governing body to put a stop to any further confusion.

The official criticized the current state of affairs and said, “IRIB and the Ministry of Culture have had several disputes over dominance in the sector, which has shaken investors’ appetite.”

Azari emphasized that this situation has had a bad effect on the growth of NIN, countering the ministry’s activities for attracting private investors.

Earlier this year, state broadcaster IRIB filed a lawsuit against Aparat, in a crackdown by IRIB that considers itself the sole arbiter of content delivery in the country.

In its lawsuit, IRIB seeks to remove its content from Aparat, which has been hosted without prior permission.  

According to the IRIB’s Director of Intellectual Property Hamed Moini, IRIB filed a lawsuit against Aparat claiming “it does not have the required permits and has repeatedly published unauthorized copies of content owned by IRIB and, therefore, infringed our copyright”.

Aparat’s response to this allegation was that it is not in a position to monitor what users load up to the platform and cannot police every video it hosts.