Several record companies sued US internet service provider Verizon, accusing it of “massive copyright infringement by tens of thousands of users.”
Parties named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the three major record labels Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as ABKCO MUSIC. The lawsuit was filed in New York on Friday (July 12).
Verizon is one of the largest Internet service providers in the United States. company generation $134 billion As of March 31, 2023, the number of subscribers was 114.8 million.
Record labels are suing Verizon for copyright infringement.
According to the record companies’ joint lawsuit, Verizon “provides high-speed service to a large community of online pirates whom it knows to repeatedly use the service to infringe Plaintiffs’ copyrights.”
The labels further claim that they have sent “hundreds of thousands of copyright infringement notices” to Verizon “in the past few years alone.”
The labels claim the notices “identify specific subscribers on the Verizon network who are stealing” their recordings through peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent, which they say are “notorious hotbeds of copyright infringement.”
Add tags: “While Verizon is known for its ‘Can You Hear Me Now?’ ad campaign, it deliberately chooses not to listen to complaints from copyright holders. Instead of taking action on these infringement notices as required by law, Verizon is burying its head in the sand by ignoring plaintiffs’ notices.
The infringing users identified in the plaintiff’s notice were undeterred and continued to use Verizon’s services to infringe the plaintiff’s copyrights with impunity. Meanwhile, Verizon continues to provide high-speed service to thousands of known repeat infringers in order to continue collecting millions of dollars from them.
The record label claimed they had sent 340,000 We have been sending infringement notices to Verizon since early 2020.
In the lawsuit, they explain, “These notices clearly and unambiguously informed Verizon that its customers were blatantly and systematically using Verizon’s Internet services to illegally download, copy and distribute Plaintiffs’ copyrighted recordings through a peer-to-peer network known as BitTorrent. “
“The scope of repeated infringement on Verizon’s network is staggering.”
Record label files lawsuit against Verizon
A new label added to the lawsuit, which you can read in full here, reads “the scope of repeat infringement on Verizon’s network is staggering.”
According to Universal, Sony, Warner and other plaintiffs, “thousands” of Verizon customers have fallen victim. 20 or more infringement notices.
At the same time, the end 500 Verizon users are 100 Or more notice, label claims a “particularly egregious Verizon user” was “single-handedly” responsible 4,450 Infringement notification from record label to Verizon.
The label claims that Verizon “acknowledged receipt of these infringement notices” sent by the label’s representatives, but “Verizon took no steps to address customers’ unlawful use of its network and deliberately chose to ignore Plaintiffs’ requests.” Turn a blind eye to this information and put their own profits before their legal obligations.”
The record label also submitted a 408 pages The document, which you can read here , details what they call an “exemplary and non-exhaustive” list of works allegedly infringed by Verizon customers. This file lists 17,335 work.
The record label is seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed, which means, based solely on the contents of this listing, the total damages sought may exceed $2.6 billion.
“By flouting the law and refusing to cooperate, Verizon waives any claims of DMCA immunity and forces music creators to turn to the courts to protect their rights and works, including the 17,335 infringing recordings identified in the complaint.”
Ken Doroshaw, Recording Industry Association of America
Commenting on the legal action, RIAA Chief Legal Officer Ken Doroshow said: “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is designed to encourage creators and platforms to work together to combat online piracy.
“Plaintiffs did their part by identifying and notifying Verizon of more than 340,000 An example of blatant copyright infringement by anonymous users on the Verizon network.
“But Verizon chose to ignore this massive infringement and failed to meet its most basic obligations under the law. By flouting the law and refusing to cooperate, Verizon waived any DMCA immunity claims and forced music creators to turn to the courts to protect them rights and works, including 17,335 The infringing recordings identified in the complaint.
The new lawsuit marks the latest legal action by record labels against U.S. Internet service providers.
These include Bright House Networks, Grande Communications and Cox Communications.
The music company originally filed a lawsuit against Cox in 2018, alleging that he “knowingly facilitated massive copyright infringement by thousands of subscribers and derived substantial profits from it.”
In 2019, the court ordered Cox to pay about $1 billion in total damages to the record labels, but in February this year, the court dismissed the $1 copyright infringement judgment.
In March, a U.S. federal appeals court rejected a request to review a February ruling that overturned a $1 billion award against Cox.
Last year, another major ISP, Altice USA, was also hit with two copyright infringement lawsuits over alleged music piracy by its subscribers, including bone cement, universal music, capitol records and Concord Music Group seek US$1 billion in one case, and sony music and Warner Music Group seek $1.6 billion in another.global music business
