Cox Communications and BMG Settle a Dispute Over Copyright Infringers
US internet service provider Cox Communications has settled its most recent dispute with BMG, earlier this week voluntarily dismissing a lawsuit it filed against the music company in May.
A previous legal battle between BMG and Cox proved very significant, of course. BMG accused Cox of having a deliberately shoddy system for dealing with copyright infringers among its user base, and argued that as a result the net firm should not be protected by the copyright safe harbour, in turn allowing it to be held liable for its users’ infringing ways.
BMG won that case and – although the ruling was overturned on appeal because of a technicality, resulting in a subsequent out-of-court settlement – it set a precedent regarding the liabilities of internet companies with mediocre systems in place to deal with copyright infringement and repeat infringers on their networks.
