Volume Growing of Music Piracy Complaints Against ISPs

Alex Lawrence spoke to Washington Internet Daily about internet service providers (ISPs) facing a growing number of lawsuits by music labels accusing them of complacency in battling piracy by their subscribers.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a safe harbor provision says an ISP that effectively implements a repeat infringer policy is legally immune. But implementation is far more difficult than just having a policy, according to Alex, who added that the law is unclear on what an effective one is, so it’s open to interpretation how frequently an infringer can infringe on your network without your taking action.

Alex also noted that there’s legal ambiguity on the safe harbor, but a lot of that has been clarified and many of the complaints against ISPs might be legacy issues now instead of current policies and practices. He said significant new cases would seem unlikely because ISPs presumably would be motivated to act by the threat of verdicts like the $1 billion one against Cox in litigation brought by various music labels.

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