Sony tells SCOTUS that people accused of piracy aren't "innocent grandmothers"
3 days ago
- #Internet piracy
- #Supreme Court
- #copyright infringement
- Record labels Sony, Warner, and Universal petitioned the Supreme Court to address Internet piracy by seeking mass terminations of broadband subscribers accused of repeat copyright infringement.
- The case, Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, centers on whether ISPs must terminate accounts of alleged pirates to avoid financial liability.
- Cox argues that copyright-infringement notices, generated by bots and based on IP addresses, are unreliable and could unfairly punish entire households.
- Record labels countered Cox's argument, highlighting that Cox terminated far more accounts for nonpayment than for copyright infringement, suggesting financial motives.
- The labels emphasized the ease of piracy via peer-to-peer protocols like BitTorrent, which lack central hubs for law enforcement to target.
- Cox's '13-strike policy' allowed subscribers multiple infringements before facing consequences, with the case involving over 10,017 copyrighted works infringed.