Cox Communications: SCOTUS Should Reject Music Labels' Petition

In its legal fight with Cox Communications, the music industry is trying to make the carrier liable for anything its internet customers do online because it has a financial interest in offering the service to subscribers, Cox told the U.S. Supreme Court Monday. In a docket 24-181 opposition brief, Cox urged SCOTUS to reject the music industry petitioners' cert petition regarding a circuit court split over how a defendant must benefit from direct copyright infringement to be vicariously liable (see 2409170001). There is no circuit split and the case itself is a poor vehicle for the labels' proposed rule because ISPs don't have the right or ability to supervise what their customers do online, Cox said. The docket proceeding, and an accompanying cert petition Cox brought in a separate docket proceeding, stem from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' affirmation of a jury's finding of Cox's willful contributory copyright infringement (see 2402210027).