Record labels sue Charter over copyright infringement claims
They allege the company turned a blind eye to 'flagrant and serial infringers.'
Charter Communications has been sued by a group of major record labels who claim it has failed to address "flagrant and serial" music copyright infringement, The Verge has reported. It's the second time over the last several years that the group has sued Charter over song piracy.
The labels said that they sent around 150,00 notices of infringement to Spectrum, Charter's internet service, including the IP addresses of "tens of thousands" of alleged infringers. They claim that the company turned a "blind eye" to the downloading, which occurred from July 2018 until recently.
"Charter insisted on doing nothing despite receiving thousands of notices that detailed the illegal activity of its subscribers, despite its clear legal obligation to address the widespread, illegal downloading of copyrighted works on its Internet services, and despite being sued previously by Plaintiffs for similar conduct," the claim states.
The same labels sued Charter in 2019, claiming subscribers were using torrent services for music pirating between March 2013 and May 2016. "Charter persisted in contributing to and profiting from its subscribers’ infringement... even after receiving Plaintiffs’ March and April 2016 notices of claims and, remarkably, even after Plaintiffs filed the 2019 lawsuit," according to the latest lawsuit.
The music industry has attacked multiple internet providers over the last few years. In June, ISP Frontier was sued by record labels over similar piracy claims. Internet service provider Cox, meanwhile, lost a $1 billion judgement in December of 2019, and vowed to appeal the settlement at the time.
