The Supreme Court has reversed the Fourth Circuit’s decision to uphold contributory liability damages against internet service provider Cox Communications. As discussed on the IP Blog last year, Cox was found contributorily liable for copyright infringement on the theory that it was not sufficiently proactive against media pirate accounts using its service.
Justice Thomas explained for the majority that contributory copyright infringement can only occur if the service provider (1) actively induces, or (2) tailors the service platform for, copyright infringement. In this case, Cox’s “mere knowledge” or “indifferent supposition” that copyright infringement would occur on its platform does not create contributory liability. Justice Sotomayor’s concurrence followed a different reasoning but nonetheless concluded that Cox did not contribute to copyright infringement via its services.
