{"id":208968,"date":"2024-08-19T11:45:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T10:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=208968"},"modified":"2024-08-19T15:48:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T14:48:58","slug":"altice-settles-1bn-copyright-infringement-lawsuit-with-music-industry-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/altice-settles-1bn-copyright-infringement-lawsuit-with-music-industry-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet service provider Altice settles $1bn copyright infringement lawsuit with music companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Altice USA, which owns the Optimum broadband and cable brand, has settled a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit<\/a> brought against the internet service operator by music industry giants in December 2022.<\/p>\n

BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Group <\/b>(UMG), Capitol Records, <\/b>and Concord Music Group<\/b> sued Altice<\/b> for allegedly failing to act against copyright violators among its customers. The music companies accused Altice of knowingly contributing to, and earning \u201csubstantial profits from, copyright infringement committed by thousands of its subscribers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe infringement that Altice has abided, profited from, and materially contributed to has injured Plaintiffs, their recording artists and songwriters, and others whose livelihoods depend on the proper licensing of music and the ability to be fairly compensated for the use of their music and earn a living from their vocations,\u201d the lawsuit added.<\/p>\n

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A joint filing dated August 14, and first spotted by Torrent Freak,<\/i> revealed<\/a> that the lawsuit has been dismissed \u201cwith prejudice,\u201d ensuring it will never be reopened.<\/p>\n

Confirmation of the settlement came in a recent SEC filing<\/a> by Altice, which stated that the lawsuit had been settled on July 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn July 1, 2024, we and the BMG Plaintiffs settled this lawsuit and as part of the settlement we expect a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice to be filed by the parties on or before August 20, 2024. The settlement amount was accrued for as of June 30, 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altice, however, is facing a similar complaint<\/a> from Warner Records<\/b> and Sony Music Publishing<\/b>, filed in December 2023. The lawsuit alleges that certain of Altice\u2019s internet subscribers directly infringed over 10,700 of the companies\u2019 copyrighted works.<\/p>\n

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The legal action cites the maximum statutory fine of $150,000<\/b> per alleged violation, implying that damages sought by Warner Records and Sony Music, among other plaintiffs, from Altice USA could exceed $1.6 billion<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend to and are vigorously defending against the claims in the Warner Matter,” Altice in its 10-K filing to the SEC dated August 1. “In addition to contesting the claims of liability, we have an affirmative defense under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act <\/b>that, if successful, would preclude or limit monetary damages against us in connection with some or all of the Warner Plaintiffs\u2019 asserted claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legal battles come amid a broader strategy by music companies to combat online piracy. The music industry initially targeted peer-to-peer file-sharing services and shifted its focus to internet service providers, viewing them as gatekeepers who could help suppress illegal activity.<\/p>\n

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Last month, multiple record companies including Sony Music, UMG and Warner Music sued<\/a> US-based ISP Verizon<\/b> for alleged \u201cmassive copyright infringement committed by tens of thousands of its subscribers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other ISPs that have faced similar lawsuits include Bright House Networks<\/a>, Grande Communications <\/a><\/b>and Cox Communications.<\/b><\/p>\n

In a lawsuit filed in 2018, music companies accused Cox of knowingly profiting from massive copyright infringement by \u201cthousands of its subscribers.\u201d The following year, a court ordered Cox to pay approximately $1 billion<\/strong> in damages. However, in February of this year, a federal appeals court overturned the damages award<\/a>, but left part of the ruling against Cox intact.<\/p>\n

Cox last week petitioned the US Supreme Court<\/a> to overturn the ruling, arguing that it could result in households and businesses being cut off from the internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Altice says it plans to “vigorously defend” against a separate lawsuit brought by Warner Music and Sony Music<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":182119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[132646,129317,130651,132647],"class_list":["post-208968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-altice-usa","tag-copyright-infringement","tag-lawsuit","tag-optimum"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}