Record Labels Sue Internet Service Provider Verizon for $2.6 Billion

Sony Music, Warner Music, and UMG Recordings say Verizon has knowingly allowed internet pirates to infringe on their copyright

A number of major music labels, including UMG Recordings, Warner Music, and Sony Music, have filed a lawsuit accusing the internet service provider Verizon of "massive copyright infringement committed by tens of thousands of its subscribers."

The lawsuit accuses Verizon of knowingly providing its high-speed internet service to a large community of online pirates, who then use the service to infringe on copyright material owned by the record companies. The labels note that they have repeatedly issued copyright infringement notices to Verizon — with hundreds of thousands of notices being sent in the last few years alone.

The plaintiffs say that under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, they are entitled to up to $150,000 per violation, which could add up to as much as $2.6 billion in total.

The lawsuit names 17,335 tracks that have been used in violation of copyright, from artists including Elvis Presley, Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, and Brandy.

You can read the lawsuit in full here.

"While Verizon is famous for its ‘Can you hear me now?’ advertising campaign, it has intentionally chosen not to listen to complaints from copyright owners," the labels wrote. "Instead of taking action in response to those infringement notices as the law requires, Verizon ignored Plaintiffs’ notices and buried its head in the sand."

"Undeterred, infringing subscribers identified in Plaintiffs’ notices continued to use Verizon’s services to infringe Plaintiffs’ copyrights with impunity. Meanwhile, Verizon continued to provide its high-speed service to thousands of known repeat infringers so it could continue to collect millions of dollars from them."

"The plaintiffs did their part, identifying and informing Verizon of more than 340,000 instances of blatant copyright infringement by anonymous users of Verizon’s network," said Ken Doroshow, the RIAA Chief Legal Officer.

"But Verizon chose to ignore this mass scale infringement and has failed its most basic obligations under the law," he added. "By flouting the law and rejecting the path of cooperation, Verizon has forfeited any claim to DMCA immunity and compelled music creators to turn to the courts to protect their rights and their work, including the 17,335 infringed recordings identified in the Complaint."