Supreme Court Protects ISPs From Music Piracy Liability
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Internet service providers cannot be held liable for their customers' copyright infringement unless they take specific steps that cause users to violate copyrights.
In a significant victory for Internet service providers (ISPs), the Supreme Court has rejected attempts by Sony Music Entertainment to hold ISPs liable for their customers' music piracy. The court ruled unanimously that ISPs cannot be held responsible for copyright infringement by users unless they take specific actions that directly enable or encourage such illegal behavior.
The long-running case, Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, stems from a $1 billion verdict issued against Cox Communications in 2019 for failing to curb music piracy on its network. While that massive damages award was later overturned in 2024, a federal appeals court still found Cox liable for willful contributory infringement.
The Supreme Court's unanimous ruling effectively means that ISPs do not have to conduct mass terminations of Internet users accused of illegally downloading or uploading pirated files. If the court had ruled otherwise, ISPs could have been compelled to strictly police their networks for piracy in order to avoid billion-dollar court verdicts under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Writing for the majority, Justice John Roberts emphasized that ISPs must take specific actions that "cause users to violate copyrights" in order to be held liable. Mere knowledge of infringement or a failure to terminate repeat offenders is not enough to establish contributory liability.
The decision is a significant victory for the internet industry, which had expressed concerns that a ruling against Cox could have forced ISPs to become the "copyright police" of the web. Internet advocacy groups praised the ruling, arguing that it preserves the safe harbor protections that have allowed the internet to flourish.
However, the ruling does not give ISPs a free pass on piracy. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote a concurring opinion arguing that the majority's reasoning was too narrow and could potentially allow ISPs to engage in willful blindness to avoid liability.
Overall, the Supreme Court's decision in Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment represents an important victory for the internet ecosystem and the principle that service providers should not be held accountable for the unlawful actions of their users, as long as they do not actively participate in or encourage such behavior.
Source: Ars Technica
