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Labels including Sony ( SONY ), Universal and Warner sued Cox

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The labels have sought to restore $1 billion verdict

By Blake Brittain

WASHINGTON, Nov 25 - The U.S. Supreme Court asked the

Justice Department on Monday to weigh in on whether the justices

should review a copyright dispute between Cox Communications

and a group of music labels following a judicial

decision that threw out a $1 billion jury verdict against the

internet service provider over alleged piracy of music by Cox

customers.

The justices are considering taking up appeals from both

sides of different aspects of a lower court's ruling. The labels

- including Sony Music, Universal Music Group

and Warner Music Group ( WMG ) - appealed an aspect of the lower

court's decision that would result in a new trial to determine

the amount of damages Cox must pay. Cox appealed the lower

court's decision that it is still liable for copyright

infringement by the users of its internet service.

More than 50 labels joined together to sue Cox in 2018.

Their appeal to the Supreme Court sought to reinstate the $1

billion award.

The labels accused Cox of doing too little to stop its users

from illegally downloading pirated copies of their music through

peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols like BitTorrent. They said Cox

failed to address thousands of copyright infringement notices

from the labels, to cut off access for repeat infringers and to

take reasonable measures to deter piracy of the music.

Major labels have brought similar lawsuits against other

internet service providers including Charter Communications,

Frontier Communications and Astound Broadband.

A jury in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia decided in 2019

that Cox owed $1 billion in damages for violations by its

internet service users of more than 10,000 music copyrights. The

Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in

February that the award could not stand, reversing part of the

infringement verdict and remanding the case for a new trial on

damages.

The 4th Circuit also rejected Cox's request to escape the

verdict entirely, finding that the company committed secondary

copyright infringement by failing to address user piracy.