Major labels’s latest copyright lawsuits are fighting on two fronts: the US and Russia. The first concerns a new copyright-infringement liability lawsuit filed against American ISP Cox Communications by Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Bros Records among others.
The case treads a similar path to a previous lawsuit against Cox from BMG, which was overturned on appeal. The argument being that the ISP knowingly profited from the piracy of its customers, and “deliberately refused to take reasonable measures to curb its customers from using its Internet services to infringe on others’ copyrights — even once Cox became aware of particular customers engaging in specific, repeated acts of infringement”.
The second lawsuit sees a similar mix of labels teaming up to sue YouTube-ripping websites FLVTO and 2conv, which are both based in Russia. According to the lawsuit, the sites together attract more than 120 million monthly visitors, and have thus taken over from YouTube-MP3, which was shut down under pressure from labels in 2016.
“These sites have no place in today’s music market where fans have access to millions of songs from dozens of legitimate services that pay creators and value their work, all at the tap of a finger,” said the RIAA in a statement on the action.
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