{"id":2521,"date":"2024-09-06T18:57:48","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T18:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/verizon-wants-music-piracy-lawsuit-from-major-labels-dismissed\/"},"modified":"2024-09-06T18:57:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T18:57:48","slug":"verizon-wants-music-piracy-lawsuit-from-major-labels-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/verizon-wants-music-piracy-lawsuit-from-major-labels-dismissed\/","title":{"rendered":"Verizon Wants Music Piracy Lawsuit From Major Labels Dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tVerizon is firing back at a lawsuit filed by the major record labels over allegations of \u201cstaggering\u201d piracy on its network, arguing that music companies cannot trot out the \u201csame playbook\u201d they used to win a billion-dollar judgment against another internet service provider.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe case, filed in July by Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, claims that Verizon \u201cburied its head in the sand\u201d in the face of repeated warnings about piracy on its network, effectively encouraging its users to illegally share music.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in a motion to dismiss the case on Friday (Sept. 6), Verizon blasted the \u201clegally deficient\u201d premise of the lawsuit: That an ISP itself can be held liable over the sins of its users.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen people do bad things online, their internet service providers are not typically the ones to blame. This lawsuit claims otherwise,\u201d Verizon\u2019s attorneys wrote. \u201cThe plaintiffs are massive record labels \u2014 together worth billions \u2014 alleging that some people illegally shared their artists\u2019 songs over the internet. Yet they made a calculated choice not to sue those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new case is the latest in a long line of major lawsuits aimed at forcing internet service providers to take more proactive steps to eliminate piracy on their networks. Major labels have filed similar cases against Charter, RCN and other ISPs in courts around the country, often winning huge judgments. In one case, the labels initially won a $1 billion verdict against Cox Communications.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in Friday\u2019s response, Verizon said those \u201clucrative\u201d cases had been incorrectly decided by other federal courts and must be rejected in the current battle, which is taking place in Manhattan\u2019s influential federal court district.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Labels filed this lawsuit because the same playbook has worked against others,\u201d Verizon\u2019s lawyers wrote. \u201cBut the decisions blessing those lawsuits were wrong then and are even less persuasive now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tProving that an ISP is liable for secondary copyright infringement requires evidence of \u201cculpable action, not passive inaction,\u201d Verizon wrote. Other federal judges may have been persuaded that failing to shut off internet service counted as such \u201cactive\u201d conduct, Verizon says, but that doesn\u2019t make it so.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Labels do not allege that Verizon encouraged music piracy or even wanted it to happen,\u201d the company\u2019s lawyers wrote. \u201cAll Verizon did was sell general internet access, which some people abused to share copyrighted music with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn particular, the telecom giant pointed to a 2023 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the justices ruled that Facebook, Twitter and Google could not be sued for aiding and abetting ISIS simply because the terrorist group had posted content to social media. Verizon argued that the legal argument in the copyright cases against ISPs directly conflicts with the high court\u2019s recent ruling.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs the first district court to consider the issue after [the Supreme Court\u2019s decision], this court now has the chance to reject the premise,\u201d Verizon\u2019s lawyers added. \u201cIt should do so. The complaint should be dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Verizon is firing back at a lawsuit filed by the major record labels over allegations of \u201cstaggering\u201d piracy on its network, arguing that music companies cannot trot out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2059,1423,303,197,593,2500,2499],"class_list":["post-2521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-dismissed","tag-labels","tag-lawsuit","tag-major","tag-music","tag-piracy","tag-verizon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}