(Credit: Connect Images via Getty Images)
The US Supreme Court has sided with an internet service provider in a decision that shields the company from a billion-dollar lawsuit over its users downloading pirated music.
In a unanimous decision, the court ruled in favor of Cox Communications after Sony Music sued the ISP, arguing it should be held liable for the digital piracy. “Cox neither induced its users’ infringement nor provided a service tailored to infringement; accordingly, Cox is not contributorily liable for the infringement of Sony’s copyrights," the court says.
In 2019, a jury found the ISP liable for the piracy and ordered it to pay $1 billion in damages to the music labels. Cox appealed to the Supreme Court.
As evidence, the music labels enlisted a third-party company to flag users found to be pirating content via peer-to-peer file-sharing protocols such as BitTorrent. Over a two-year period, Cox received “163,148 notices identifying IP addresses of Cox subscribers associated with infringement,” the Supreme Court notes.
However, the justices found that Cox never actively encouraged its users to engage in piracy, with evidence showing the opposite: it sent warnings, suspended services, and terminated accounts. “Cox simply provided internet access, which is used for many purposes other than copyright infringement,” the ruling adds.
In writing the opinion for the court, Justice Clarence Thomas noted that, “we are loath to expand such liability beyond those precedents,” pushing back on Sony’s attempt to expand liability beyond users directly engaged in the piracy. “This Court has repeatedly made clear that mere knowledge that a service will be used to infringe is insufficient to establish the required intent to infringe,” he added.
Cox called the ruling “a decisive victory for the broadband industry and for the American people who depend on reliable internet service.”
“This opinion affirms that internet service providers are not copyright police and should not be held liable for the actions of their customers—and after years of battling in the trial and appellate courts, we have definitively shut down the music industry’s aspirations of mass evictions from the internet,” the company said, later adding: “Today’s decision allows us to focus on our goals of preserving open internet access, protecting consumers’ privacy, and ensuring that broadband remains a reliable resource for the families and businesses in the communities we serve.”
Sony Music didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But the Recording Industry Association of America told PCMag: “We are disappointed in the Court’s decision vacating a jury’s determination that Cox Communications contributed to mass scale copyright infringement, based on overwhelming evidence that the company knowingly facilitated theft.
The group added: "To be effective, copyright law must protect creators and markets from harmful infringement, and policymakers should look closely at the impact of this ruling. The Court’s decision is narrow, applying only to ‘contributory infringement’ cases involving defendants like Cox that do not themselves copy, host, distribute, or publish infringing material or control or induce such activity.”