Student puts course material up for sale

Representatives of a learning app firm, Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, filed a police complaint against one of its students for copying the course material and putting it up for sale on commercial websites violating the Copyright Act.

Based on a complaint filed by Praveen Prakash (35), the police registered a case against the suspect Prashanth Kumar and booked him under various sections of the Copyright Act. In his complaint, Prakash stated that the company, founded by Byju Raveendran and popularly known as Byju Educational Technology Company, offers learning apps for various competitive exams including CAT, UPSC, Gmat and IIT JEE.

Prashanth enrolled for the CAT course in 2014 and availed course material along with a tablet and an SD card. As part of the enrolment procedure, the candidate gave an undertaking that he would not share the material with anyone. However, Prashanth violated the conditions. He used high-resolution cameras and recording devices to record the video and audio clips of the expert’s classes and put them up for sale on a commercial website.

The incident came to light when the company representatives came across an advertisement and sought sample materials after approaching the suspect as a prospective client.

After studying the samples, they discovered that the suspect had recorded their material for monetary gain. A case was then registered with the Koramangala police.