The US Supreme Court has ruled that internet service provider Cox Communications cannot be held liable for copyright infringement by its subscribers in a decision on pirated music.

The court ruled unanimously in favour of Cox, finding that the company cannot be held liable for infringement that occurred on its network. The decision reverses a ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

The case, Cox Communications, Inc. V. Sony Music Entertainment, was brought in 2018 by Sony and other major recording and publishing companies. The music companies argued that Cox was legally responsible for willfully infringing more than 10,000 of their copyrighted works because it continued to provide internet services to known infringers who downloaded and distributed songs without permission. At the time, a jury sided with the music companies and awarded $1 billion in damages.

Following an appeal, the 4th Circuit upheld part of the verdict and found that “supplying a product with knowledge that the recipient will use it to infringe copyrights is exactly the sort of culpable conduct sufficient for contributory infringement”. But the appeals court set aside the $1 billion damages award and sent the case back to the jury for a new trial on damages.

Justice Clarence Thomas said that a service provider such as Cox is responsible for piracy by its users “only if it intended that the provided service be used for infringement”. He noted that Cox took steps to discourage copyright infringement by its users, including by sending warnings, suspending services and terminating accounts.

“Cox did not tailor its service to make copyright infringement easier,” he wrote. “Cox simply provided Internet access, which is used for many purposes other than copyright infringement.”

He said that holding Cox liable merely for failing to terminate Internet service to infringing accounts would expand secondary copyright liability beyond precedents.

Cox welcomed the ruling, describing it as a “decisive victory for the broadband industry and for the American people who depend on reliable internet service”.

“This opinion affirms that Internet service providers are not copyright police and should not be held liable for the actions of their customers — and after years of battling in the trial and appellate courts, we have definitively shut down the music industry’s aspirations of mass evictions from the internet,” stated the company.

Mitch Glazier, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, criticised the ruling.

“To be effective, copyright law must protect creators and markets from harmful infringement and policymakers should look closely at the impact of this ruling,” he said in a statement. “The Court’s decision is narrow, applying only to ‘contributory infringement’ cases involving defendants like Cox that do not themselves copy, host, distribute, or publish infringing material or control or induce such activity.”

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