Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment

Cox Communications, Inc. (Cox) (defendant) was an internet service provider with approximately six million subscribers. The subscribers were contractually prohibited from using Cox’s service to infringe copyrights. Sony Music Entertainment and other large music-copyright holders (collectively, Sony) (plaintiffs) used MarkMonitor to track infringement of Sony’s copyrights. MarkMonitor identified IP addresses engaged in infringement and notified the relevant service provider. Over two years, MarkMonitor sent Cox 163,148 infringement notices. Cox responded by developing policies to discourage copyright infringement via warnings, suspended services, and account terminations. However, Cox terminated few accounts, even with notice of repeated infringement. Sony sued Cox, arguing that Cox was contributorily and vicariously liable for its users’ infringement of Sony’s copyrights. Specifically, Sony argued that Cox was contributorily liable because it continued providing internet service to infringing users and vicariously liable because it was able to control users’ infringement but failed to do so. The district-court jury found Cox both contributorily and vicariously liable, awarding Sony $1 billion in damages. The Fourth Circuit reversed the vicarious-liability holding but affirmed the contributory-liability holding, concluding that supplying a service with knowledge it would be used to infringe copyrights was sufficient to support contributory liability. The United States Supreme Court granted Cox’s petition for certiorari regarding contributory liability.