Major record labels reach last-minute settlement with US ISP Bright House in copyright lawsuit
Several record labels, including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment settled a copyright infringement lawsuit against US internet service provider Bright House Networks ahead of a scheduled hearing in a Florida court.
In a brief court filing on Tuesday (August 2), Universal Music, on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) members, said, “they have settled” the case against Bright House, without disclosing specifics of the agreement.
The filing comes a day before the two parties are due to appear before the United States District Court for the Central District of Florida, department of Tampa, hereinafter. virtual hearing held on July 28 and July 29 via Zoom.
The settlement marks the end of a three-year litigation between Bright House and the record companies.
In 2019, the labels accused Bright House allows thousands of subscribers to illegally download, copy, and distribute copyrighted music through BitTorrent and other online file sharing services.
“Bright House has knowingly contributed to and profited substantially from the massive piracy of thousands of subscribers, greatly harming the plaintiffs, their recording artists and musicians, and their others whose livelihood depends on the legal acquisition of music,” the recording companies said in their complaint on March 22, 2019.
The plaintiffs include Universal Music, Capitol Records, Warner Music, Atlantic ProfileBad Boy Records was founded by P. Diddy, Sony Music, EMI and some of their subsidiaries and affiliates.
“Bright House has knowingly contributed to and profited substantially from the massive piracy of thousands of subscribers, to great detriment to the plaintiffs.”
RIAA MEMBERS (in lawsuit from March 2019)
The lawsuit occurred about 4 years after Bright House was acquired by Communications Charter for $10.4 billion.
Bright House, the company that provides the Internet and other digital media services, allegedly refused to take reasonable steps to prevent customers from using its Internet to infringe the copyrights of others, including the copyright owned by the plaintiff.
“Rather than working with the plaintiffs to limit this major breach, Bright House did nothing, choosing to prioritize its own profits over legal obligations,” the complaint reads. The record labels further emphasized that the internet service provider had not taken action against repeat violators.
More than a year after the lawsuit was filed, Bright House filed an objection, accusing the plaintiffs of “false, deceptive and misleading” claims and violations of the Millennium Copyright Act. Digital (DMCA) due to “intentionally sending the alleged infringing notices in an incorrect manner.”
Three years after returning with more arguments, the court dismissed the case on Tuesday under the settlement, according to a order issued by U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven.
Details of the settlement, including financial terms, were not disclosed in any filings, and neither side made an official statement.
The lawsuit is just one of many copyright lawsuits filed by record companies to tackle piracy in the music industry.
Back in February, the RIAA was awarded $83 million damages due to copyright infringement from YouTube-rippers FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com after a federal court in Virginia ruled that the sites actually violated copyright law by allowing users to rip music from YouTube, TorrentFreak reported.
It complies with the RIAA’s successful auction shut down YouTube-MP3.org (‘YouTube to MP3), another stream ripping site, in 2017.
Abroad, a court in Milan ordered CloudFlarea US-based content distribution network company, to block user access to three pirated BitTorrent sites.
The decision, made less than a month ago, is the result of a lawsuit brought by the global recording industry body IFPIhas over 8,000 members globally including Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music.
Worldwide music business
