All in DMCA

November 2019 News Update

An update on news from November 2019.

Judge Recommends Allowing Vicarious Liability Claim For Copyright Infringement Against ISP Charter Communications To Proceed

A U.S. Magistrate Judge has issued a decision in Warner Bros. Records Inc. v. Charter Communications, Inc., recommending the District Court deny Charter’s motion to dismiss the record company Plaintiffs’ claims for vicarious infringement. The Magistrate concluded the Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged the infringement of their content is a draw to Charter’s broadband subscribers, and demonstrated a causal relationship between the infringing activity and financial benefit received by Charter.

DMCA Copyright Infringement Lawsuit: Record Companies v. RCN

A group of record companies has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet service provider RCN Telecom Services, LLC and its subsidiaries. The Plaintiff record companies argue RCN is not eligible for DMCA safe harbor immunity because RCN failed to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers or take any other meaningful action to curb subscribers’ copyright infringement. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District Of New Jersey (Case No. cv-19-17272).

Death Blow: Texas Court Strips ISP Grande Communications Of DMCA Safe Harbor Defense

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has ruled that Texas-based Internet service provider Grande Communications Networks, LLC may not use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbor as part of its defense against a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by a group of record labels. The case is now set to move to trial, where the record companies are seeking to hold Grande secondarily liable for over one million instances of direct copyright infringement by Grande broadband subscribers.

Update on UMG v. Grande Communications: UMG’s Files Summary Judgment Motion To Strip Grande of DMCA Safe Harbor Defense

In 2017, some of the largest record companies in the U.S. filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Grande Communications Networks, LLC, a Texas-based Internet service provider, alleging Grande broadband subscribers repeatedly infringed copyrighted works by reproducing and distributing them using BitTorrent. The record companies claim Grande is secondarily liable for these infringements because Grande does not follow its DMCA policy by terminating subscribers who are repeat infringers. The record companies have moved for summary judgment, seeking to strip Grande of its Section 512 DMCA safe harbor from secondary copyright infringement liability.