Supreme Court Sides 9-0 With Cox in Copyright Case

‘Mere knowledge that a service will be used to infringe is insufficient to establish the required intent to infringe,’ Justice Clarence Thomas wrote.

Jake Neenan

Mar 25, 2026 — 3 min read

Photo of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas at The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025 by Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2026 – The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Cox Communications in a major copyright dispute, finding the ISP was not liable for providing broadband to repeated infringers.

“Under our precedents, a company is not liable as a copyright infringer for merely providing a service to the general public with knowledge that it will be used by some to infringe copyrights,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court.

More than 50 record labels, led by Sony, had sued Cox for copyright infringement, arguing the company didn’t take its subscribers offline quickly enough after repeated music piracy.

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