Talking of the majors suing ISPs over their infringing customers – which you were, admit it, you were – let's check back in on the record industry's legal battle with Cox Communications. Because the back and forth between the labels and the ISP continues.
In the latest court filing in the case, Cox is demanding that the Recording Industry Association Of America hand over internal reports relating to the Copyright Alert System that the big music and movie companies set up with a number of other ISPs to deal with online piracy.
First, a quick recap. The major music companies, co-ordinated by the RIAA, sued Cox after BMG's earlier successful action against the ISP. The arguments are the same as in all the other lawsuits on this issue: ie Cox had a deliberately shoddy system for dealing with repeat infringers on its network, therefore should not be able to rely on the copyright safe harbour, and should therefore be held liable for its users' infringement.
The whole matter is due to get to court later this year, but in the meantime both sides have been busy filing complaints about the other. Cox most recently requested that data the labels intend to present as key evidence be excluded because it isn't complete. Meanwhile the labels accused the ISP of "a consistent pattern of obstruction, delay and gamesmanship".
Posted on: 29/08/2019Categories: News from CMU Online
