Greater Liability For ISP's

In a sure-to-be-appealed verdict last week, a federal court jury in the Eastern District of Virginia found Cox Communications liable to pay $25 million to music publisher BMG Rights Management for contributory copyright infringement. Does this case add anything new to the debate over whether the Digital Millennium Copyright Act strikes the right balance in protecting the rights of Internet service providers, their subscribers and rights holders?

BMG asserted that users of Cox's Internet service employed BitTorrent, a type of peer-to-peer file sharing, to illegally upload and download its copyrighted musical compositions. BMG hired Rightscorp, Inc., to locate infringing uses of BMG's works. Rightscorp located files allegedly being shared illegally and flooded Cox with 2.5 million DMCA notices. The notices contained a demand that the subscribers pay Rightscorp $10 or $20 per infringement, in addition to removing the content.