Cox Communications was ordered to pay $1 billion for failing to take sufficient measures to stop music piracy. The company said the ruling could “put internet access at risk for all Americans.”
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Unbranded – Entertainment
WASHINGTON – The entertainment industry’s seemingly lost battle to stop the piracy and sharing of music in the digital age reached the Supreme Court on Dec. 1 in a case that both sides say could have a huge impact on both the industry and Internet users.
The high court’s decision not to hold internet service providers liable for copyright infringement on their networks would be “a disaster for the music community,” according to groups representing musicians and other entertainers.
But Cox Communications, the nation’s largest private broadband company, argues that standards that are too strict could “put all Americans’ internet access at risk.”
The world’s major record companies and music publishers say Cox helped 60,000 customers and distributed more than 10,000 copyrighted works for free, contributing to a problem that cost the industry billions of dollars a year.
The jury said Cox owed $1 billion in damages.
Cox asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that Sony Music Entertainment and more than 50 other record labels failed to take reasonable steps to prevent copyright infringement and cut off service to repeat offenders.
In 2019, a jury sided with the music industry and said Cox was owed $1 billion in damages.
based in richmond 4th The United States Court of Appeals for the Circuit vacated the damages award and ordered a new trial based on the reduced violations.
The Supreme Court declined the record label’s request to consider whether lower courts were right to dismiss a type of copyright infringement, agreeing to hear Cox’s appeal over whether the company could still be held liable for making a “material contribution” to copyright infringement.
Cox argued that in order to be held liable, a company must not only have failed to prevent piracy, but must have actively supported piracy.
Cox says service providers are not ‘internet police’
When anti-piracy companies hired by the American recording industry discover that Internet users are downloading or distributing copyrighted music, they flag that information and the user’s Internet Protocol address and notify service providers.
But Cox argues that it is “contrary to common law and common sense” to be penalized for continuing someone’s internet service “after receiving an automated notification accusing an unknown user in their home or business” of illegally copying or sharing music.
standard 4th If applied by the circuit court, internet service providers would be forced to cut off service to homes, military barracks, hospitals and hotels based solely on “straightforward accusations” against a single user of an IP address, the company’s lawyers told the Supreme Court.
“The idea would turn internet providers into internet police, putting internet access at risk for millions of users,” they wrote in their filing.
Cox supported by Justice Department, X, and ACLU
Cox is backed by the Justice Department, tech companies like X and Google, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
In a joint filing with other free speech organizations, the ACLU amplified Cox’s claims about the potential collateral damage caused by the shutdown, which is “based solely on notifications from copyright owners and is an unverifiable and unverifiable assertion.”
“For example, a parent’s Internet access could be terminated based on the child’s behavior and even to the child’s friends,” the groups wrote. “Hospitals that provide internet access to dozens or even hundreds of patients and their families could potentially see critical access cut off.”
Music industry claims Cox did little to stop copyright infringement
Opposing groups argue that such “hopeless” predictions indicate a false choice.
Lawyers for the Motion Picture Association said in a brief in support of the music industry that Cox had less drastic ways to stop copyright infringement, but he did not take advantage of them.
“Cox itself has no one to blame other than Cox for consciously choosing not to take even minimal steps to address its customers’ repeated breaches,” they wrote.
At one point, peer-to-peer file sharing (the most common method of music piracy) accounted for 21% of all traffic on Cox’s network, Sony said.
Sony lawyers also highlighted an email from Cox’s manager, who oversees compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, telling colleagues to “do DCMA!!!”
Music industry trade groups said they have tried multiple methods to get internet service providers to help stop the mass piracy that threatens the industry’s survival.
Music companies said they took legal action as a last resort against service providers like Cox, who were initially in talks with the industry but “ultimately withdrew and went their own way.”
“Cox was found not liable simply because it knew its customers were engaging in infringement,” they wrote. “In order to maintain profits, we engaged in a campaign that deliberately ignored our legal obligations, making us subject to increased statutory damages.”
