Cox, Music Labels at Odds Over Undivulged Computer Code
Cox Communications and the music labels suing it are clashing over a piece of computer code not made available to Cox in discovery. The plaintiff labels said Thursday (docket 1:18-cv-00950) in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that code "is of no consequence, since its production would not have changed the jury’s finding of Cox’s overwhelming liability for the massive infringement of Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works." MarkMonitor uses the code to store data from Audible Magic's identification of the contents of suspected infringing files, the labels said. They said Cox's subpoena of MarkMonitor never asked for the code and has never argued its absence limited any expert analysis. Cox said the labels' direct infringement case hinged on the supposed accuracy of the MarkMonitor system and its ability to use Audible Magic tech to guarantee that only legitimate infringement allegations were made last month, in its motion for relief from the $1 billion verdict against it. The discovery of the code "demonstrates the existence of newly discovered evidence, which seems likely to warrant relief."