The Supreme Court considered the role of Internet service providers in deterring music piracy. A lot was at stake, both for the industry and for internet users.
Supreme Court hears Cox Communications music copyright infringement case
The Supreme Court is hearing the $1 billion Cox Communications music copyright infringement case. Cox has received support from the ACLU.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on March 25 ruled against the music industry’s efforts to punish internet service providers who allow users to illegally copy and share content.
The justices said a lower court erred in holding Cox Communications liable for large sums of money in damages for continuing to provide Internet service to customers who received repeated copyright infringement notices.
“Cox did not tailor its services to facilitate copyright infringement,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a unanimous decision. “Cox simply provided Internet access, which is used for many purposes other than copyright infringement.”
Cox argued that the standards adopted by lower courts would force him to cut off internet access to large account holders, such as universities, hospitals and even entire towns, to avoid large judgments.
But Sony Music Entertainment and other major record companies and music publishers said Mr. Cox helped distribute more than 10,000 copyrighted works for free to 60,000 customers, contributing to a problem that cost the industry billions of dollars a year.
The jury said Cox owed $1 billion in damages.
Cox, one of the nation’s largest internet service providers, asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a Virginia jury said it owed the music industry $1 billion in damages.
The Court of Appeals reversed the damages award and ordered a new trial based on the reduced violations.
Mr. Cox continued to fight the remaining violations, arguing that liability requires not only failure to stop piracy, but also active support of piracy.
The company was backed by the Department of Justice, technology companies like X and Google, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU said the liability standard, which encourages internet service providers to “first cut off access to the internet and ask questions later,” threatens free speech in an increasingly digital world and could also impact other speech distributors, such as bookstores and social media sites.
Music industry warns internet companies of copyright infringement
Music industry trade groups said they have taken a variety of steps to encourage internet service providers to stop widespread piracy that threatens the industry’s survival.
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 argued 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.
To avoid a lawsuit, Cox’s lawyers told the judge during oral arguments in December that once an IP address is flagged, service must be shut down for all users using the same connection.
Sony’s lawyers claim Cox failed to act
Paul Clement, lawyer representing the music industry, Cox countered that he was fabricating a worst-case scenario by failing to take reasonable steps to address repeat offenders of peer-to-peer file sharing, the most common method of music piracy.
Clement highlighted an email from Cox’s manager, who oversees compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, in which he told colleagues to “do DCMA!!!”
The company did not consider suspending service to customers until it received 13 infringement notices, according to court records.
Clement said music companies cannot fight large-scale copyright infringement without the ability to hold Cox accountable for such actions.
And going after individual offenders directly is a “teaspoon solution to the ocean problem,” he said.
The case is Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment.
