Kartik Aaryan takes legal route to protect his identity, flags online misuse

Actor Kartik Aaryan has approached the Bombay High Court, alleging unauthorised commercial use of his personality across multiple online platforms, in a move that underscores growing concerns over digital misuse of celebrity identities. According to reports, the actor has filed an intellectual property (IP) suit seeking protection of his name, image, likeness, and other identifiable attributes, which he claims are being used without consent. The plea targets several online platforms as well as unidentified individuals, often referred to as “John Doe” parties, accused of exploiting his persona for commercial gain. In his petition, Kartik has sought a permanent injunction to restrain entities from using his identity in advertisements, merchandise, or digital content. He has also urged the court to direct platforms to take down such material and disclose details of those responsible. The actor’s legal team has argued that the misuse extends to emerging digital formats, including manipul...

‘It has become a sort of silver bullet’: why are rap lyrics being put on trial?

In compelling documentary As We Speak, a controversial legal practice that uses rap lyrics to secure convictions is explored

In September 2001, McKinley Phipps Jr, also known as the rapper Mac, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for manslaughter. It had been a year and a half since gunfire erupted outside a club where he was slated to perform in Slidell, Louisiana, resulting in the death of 19-year-old Barron Victor Jr. Phipps, then 22, maintained his innocence, and the case against him was weak – there was no gun linking him to the crime, several witnesses recanted their testimony and another person confessed to pulling the trigger. And yet, prosecutors had their trump card: Mac, a former New Orleans rap prodigy who began releasing music at the age of 13, had rapped about murder.

“Murder, murder, kill, kill”, Phipps recites in As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial, a new documentary on the criminalization of rap lyrics. Prosecutors spliced that line with one from a different song – “Pull the trigger, put a bullet in your head” – to create the portrait of a killer; Mac’s art was the evidence that DNA, solid confessions, or a missing weapon couldn’t provide. An all-white jury bought it. Phipps served over 21 years in prison before being granted clemency in 2021.

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