ISPs Challenge Court Decision in Cox Copyright Lawsuit

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2024 - Several major Internet Service Providers said that the nation's highest court needs to shield them from copyright liability claims based on infringements by broadband subscribers.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held Cox Communications, a privately held Internet service provider, responsible for its subscribers' piracy and copyright infringements.

While throwing out $1 billion in copyright infringement damages against the company, the court nevertheless held that Cox could still be liable if it continued providing network access to subscribers who pirate content.

Cox was first sued in 2018 when a group of more than 50 record labels alleged that Cox allowed subscribers to continue accessing the Internet after repeated piracy notices.

In response to the suit, four ISPs filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court on Monday in support of Cox.

ISPs Altice, Frontier, Lumen and Verizon noted in their joint brief that the threat of liability imposed by the courts was directly contradictory to Congress’s goal of connecting all Americans to the internet.

The providers said that, because of the immense financial burden of fines resulting from copyright liabilities, they were encouraged to harm innocent subscribers by conducting mass terminations against accounts that they suspected of illicit activity.

The Fourth Circuit’s decision stipulated that service providers could be on the hook for up to $150,000 per work infringed. 

Given the scale of Cox and other large ISPs, the fines could be multiplied by the thousands, amounting to costs that could spell disaster for an ISP's ability to maintain or build its network, the ISPs’ brief said.

The ISPs argued that contributory copyright infringement was contingent on active participation, something which they argued Cox was not guilty of.