The Library Copyright Alliance joined an amicus brief asking the US Court of Appeals for the full Fourth Circuit to rehear Sony Music Entertainment, et al. v. Cox Communication, Inc. and CoxCom, LLC, arguing that the court’s holding would result in many law-abiding users losing internet access, which is essential to daily life.
The case began when Sony sued broadband provider Cox for copyright infringement, alleging that Cox did not terminate the accounts of subscribers alleged by rightsholders to have downloaded or distributed copyrighted music files without permission from 2013 to 2014. A jury found Cox liable for willful contributory and vicarious infringement, and awarded $1 billion in statutory damages. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit reversed the vicarious liability verdict and vacated the $1 billion award. However, the court affirmed the jury’s finding that Cox was liable for willful contributory infringement.
In the amicus brief the Library Copyright Alliance described what’s at stake for internet users if the court’s holdings concerning contributory infringement were to stand. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides safe harbor from liability for copyright infringement when internet service providers (ISPs) adhere to certain conditions, including adopting and reasonably implementing a policy to terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. ISPs are likely to respond to new and unpredictable liability introduced by the Fourth Circuit’s ruling by tightening their repeat-infringer policies and terminating more subscribers with less justification, in order to maintain their safe harbor under the DMCA. Terminating an ISP account potentially cuts off internet access for entire households. In libraries and schools, every student, faculty member, patron, and employee who shares the internet connection could lose access. Millions of people rely on libraries and universities for internet access. With little or no competition among broadband ISPs in many areas of the country, those users may have no other way to connect to education, healthcare, and work. Losing internet access is a severe and disproportionate consequence for most infringers who participate in noncommercial, small-scale copyright infringement.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the American Library Association (ALA) are founding members of the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA). Amici in this case include Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Library Futures. LCA joined a brief in support of Cox in an earlier stage of this case (2021).
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of research libraries in Canada and the US whose vision is to create a trusted, equitable, and inclusive research and learning ecosystem and prepare library leaders to advance this work in strategic partnership with member libraries and other organizations worldwide. ARL’s mission is to empower and advocate for research libraries and archives to shape, influence, and implement institutional, national, and international policy. ARL develops the next generation of leaders and enables strategic cooperation among partner institutions to benefit scholarship and society. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.
