Major Record Labels Drop Verizon & Altice Copyright Lawsuits

Photo Credit: Leon Bredella

Just like that, at least two music industry infringement lawsuits against internet service providers – Verizon and Altice USA here – have drawn to an abrupt close following the Supreme Court’s Cox v. Sony decision.

We’ve been covering those copyright complaints (plus multiple others filed against ISPs) for years now. Spearheaded by Warner Music and Sony Music, the Altice case set sail in 2023 and accused the company of failing to adequately address subscribers’ alleged repeat infringement.

Furthermore, Altice “knowingly contributed to, and reaped substantial profits from, massive copyright infringement committed by thousands of its subscribers,” the plaintiffs wrote.

The similar action against Verizon, for its part, kicked off in 2024 and maintained that the business had deliberately provided “high-speed service to a massive community of online pirates.”

As many are aware, besides overlapping, these two suits closely resemble a number of others centering on ISPs’ alleged contributory and vicarious infringement. This includes the majors’ marathon Cox Communications showdown.

Consequently, while the Cox legal battle was playing out in the nation’s highest court – meaning until shortly after the unanimous decision came down late last month – UMG v. Verizon, Warner v. Altice, and more were placed on pause.

Now, with the Supreme Court having dramatically narrowed the definition of contributory liability for service providers, the pauses – and the cases themselves – are officially over.

In both the Verizon and Altice disputes, the involved parties jointly moved to dismiss “all claims…with prejudice” and with each side bearing “its own costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees,” per the relevant filings.

At the top level, the significance of the cases’ going kaput is clear cut – especially given the huge damages payments previously secured by or awarded to industry plaintiffs.

To name one example, this wasn’t Altice’s first infringement litigation rodeo; in 2024, after settling a separate copyright suit submitted by plaintiffs including BMG, the business identified nearly $50 million in quarterly “impairments.” Additionally, the Supreme Court recently wiped away a sizable verdict against Grande Communications, which had been gearing up for a trial.

Put differently, the times are a-changin’ when it comes to holding service providers (and not solely ISPs) liable for their users’ alleged infringement. So what happens next? First, as broken down by DMN Pro, piracy’s far less prevalent today, with music little more than a click away on all manner of licensed DSPs, than it was in the early 2000s.

Even so, there’s the possibility of once again litigating against individuals who allegedly downloaded (and shared) illegal music. But for a variety of reasons – among them optics, the minimal (meaning nonexistent) financial upside, and the chance that media coverage could actually increase pirate sites’ traffic – the course is probably unwise except for especially egregious instances of alleged infringement.

On the other hand, preventing piracy at the source with site-blocking legislation seems advisable. Closer to April’s start, we explored the industry’s post-Cox lobbying shift and current bipartisan proposals that would require ISPs as well as large DNS providers to stop subscribers accessing piracy sites.