Supreme Court sides with the internet in music piracy case

“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,” wrote Clarence Thomas in the decision, per Deadline, which noted that the ISP did not “induce” or “encourage” piracy. “Cox provided Internet service to its subscribers, but it did not intend for that service to be used to commit copyright infringement. Holding Cox liable merely for failing to terminate Internet service to infringing accounts would expand secondary copyright liability beyond our precedents.” 

The decision caps off over a decade of legal back and forth, a saga that has generally been kinder to Sony than Cox. In 2015, Cox was found liable for infringement and ordered to pay $25 million to BMG Rights. The company appealed in 2018, but the verdict was upheld, prompting more music publishers, including Sony, Warner, and Universal, to seek damages from the ISP.  Cox was then found liable for over $1 billion in damages. Cox appealed again, and in 2024, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the verdict, ruling that the ISP was guilty of contributory infringement but not vicarious infringement, wherein a party knowingly profits from pirated materials. At that point, the $1 billion judgment was vacated.