Tricky Business – Using A Law You Flout To Avoid Liability

Music piracy poses a large threat to artists' copyrights, depriving the music industry of billions of dollars annually. To combat this, music producers often seek out the assistance of Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") in stopping copyright infringement by the ISPs' customers. For ISPs that cooperate, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") provides safe harbor that limits their liability for copyright infringement committed by their customers. That safe harbor, however, is not absolute. Recently, the Supreme Court in Cox Commc'ns v. Sony Music Ent. was asked to confirm that an executive's open defiance of the DMCA's provisions obliterated any safe harbor protection and to affirm the jury's verdict finding the ISP liable for contributory copyright infringement based on its customers' piracy.