ISPs face piracy liability

protecting copyrights for fun and profit

[tangor]

Following a US court's decision to make ISP Cox Cable liable for customer piracy, copyright enforcement collector Rightscorp says it hopes to use the case to extract further funds from service providers.

"Although Rightscorp was not a party in this case, we are delighted with the outcome. The Federal District Court declared the liability of ISPs to be precisely what Rightscorp has been saying it is for years," Rightscorp CEO Christopher Sabec said in a statement.

[theregister.co.uk...]

This ruling might make it possible to make miscreants (ie. ISPs that allow theft to exist) pay for their play. How this shakes out over time will be of interest to many of us who rely on keeping our intellectual property secure, yet available, on the web.

[keyplyr]

Cox is one of my ISPs and from my experience they are extremely diligent in policing their subscribers regarding DMCA and other copyright standards.

[tangor]

I think it is all based on this; [theregister.co.uk...] which is pretty significant. $25 million is not chump change. This ruling, however, sets precedence that ISPs (and webmasters or anyone else) are on notice there is a limit on Safe Harbor (which died this year and is yet to be replaced) will no longer be a defense.

We'll know it is serious biz when/if g's youtube gets clobbered the same way. Currently g/yt is relying on a loophole in DMCA (and folks in high places, theirs in gov and the gov itself) on single instance wrongs rather than general "look the other way'. Cox got caught. Others are in the cross-hairs and, IMO, about time. As a long time musician, composer, songwriter and all that other jazz I'd like to get my royalties for all the free stuff pissed away by freetards over the last nine years. But that's another story. :)

[keyplyr]

I support your sentiment for copyright owners, however I'm registered with BMG and IMO they've always been more concerned with their own interests than those of their members.

Where I may differ in opinion is I do not put the blame on ISPs. It's the websites (including Ytube) that make available the pirated content and the end user that illegally downloads and shares it. Saying the ISP is at fault is like saying the car manufacturer is at fault for the illegal left-hand-turn of the driver.

From that article it looks like the suit is the result of BMG's discontent with the way Cox enforced the DMCA. In other words, BMG wanted Cox to do BMG's job so they could tell their members how great copyright is being enforced.

But I agree, if this *pass the blame* accusation is sucessful, it may start a domino effect across the media world.

[tangor]

Thread title was changed from "sue-balls' (which means lawsuits) to liability. The liability has always been there. This is about the success of a particular "sue-ball". Opens the gate for other copyright holders, either collective or independent, to stop the piracy. Most webmasters hosting video/music might not be the ones to do it, but the musicians/actors and their agents, as well as the entire music/film industry currently losing $12B/yr (or thereabouts) will certainly take note and move from there.

Frankly, this is long overdue.