Policy

Record labels Sony, Warner, and Universal yesterday asked the Supreme Court to help it boot pirates off the Internet.

Sony and the other labels filed their brief in Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, a case involving the cable Internet service provider that rebuffed labels’ demands for mass terminations of broadband subscribers accused of repeat copyright infringement. The Supreme Court’s eventual decision in the case may determine whether Internet service providers must terminate the accounts of alleged pirates in order to avoid massive financial liability.

Cox has argued that copyright-infringement notices—which are generated by bots and flag users based on their IP addresses—sent by record labels are unreliable. Cox said ISPs can’t verify whether the notices are accurate and that terminating an account would punish every user in a household where only one person may have illegally downloaded copyrighted files.

Record labels urged the Supreme Court to reject this argument.

“While Cox waxes poetic about the centrality of Internet access to modern life, it neglects to mention that it had no qualms about terminating 619,711 subscribers for nonpayment over the same period that it terminated just 32 for serial copyright abuse,” the labels’ brief said. “And while Cox stokes fears of innocent grandmothers and hospitals being tossed off the Internet for someone else’s infringement, Cox put on zero evidence that any subscriber here fit that bill. By its own admission, the subscribers here were ‘habitual offenders’ Cox chose to retain because, unlike the vast multitude cut off for late payment, they contributed to Cox’s bottom line.”

Record labels were referring to a portion of Cox’s brief that said, “Grandma will be thrown off the Internet because Junior illegally downloaded a few songs on a visit.”

Too much torrenting, record labels say

The record labels’ brief complained about torrents providing Internet users with easy access to pirated material:

Today, most infringement occurs on peer-to-peer file-sharing protocols like BitTorrent, which enable viral uploading and downloading of pirated music faster than ever, leaving behind no fingerprints beyond a ten-digit IP address that only an ISP can tie to the user. Unlike earlier methods of infringement—e.g., bootleg CD manufacturers—peer-to-peer file-sharing protocols lack a central hub that law enforcement can shutter. And unlike earlier methods, peer-to-peer protocols are not constrained by the need to create physical copies; BitTorrent enables tens of thousands of people to trade pirated music simultaneously.

Record labels said that Cox used a “13-strike policy” that let subscribers repeatedly download pirated material before facing any consequences. The case is based on “claims to works infringed by subscribers who generated at least three infringement notices across 2013 and 2014, for a total of 10,017 copyrighted works,” the brief said.