According to the plaintiffs, Verizon made the decision to disregard their findings and turned down requests to cancel the accounts of customers.
Verizon has been accused of “contributory and vicarious copyright infringement” by a collection of record labels that include Universal, Capitol, Warner, and Sony. The complaint was brought against Verizon by the record labels.As stated in their complaint, the companies stated that Verizon “knowingly provides its high-speed service to a massive community of online pirates.” It would appear that the plaintiffs have given the internet provider “hundreds of thousands” of copyright infringement notices over the course of the past few years. These notices identify users who have been utilizing Verizon’s network to share music that is protected by copyright through peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks.
Verizon reportedly acknowledged that it had received their notices, as stated by them. According to the allegations, the corporation made the decision to disregard them and proceeded to offer internet services to “thousands of known repeat infringers” in order to continue collecting millions of dollars from them. Verizon “obtained a direct financial benefit” from the claimed copyright infringers’ “continuing infringing activity,” according to the plaintiffs’ argument. This was due to the fact that Verizon did not cancel the accounts of the alleged offender. For each work that was infringed upon, the labels are requesting damages from the amount of up to $150,000. According to the list that was published by Ars Technica, there are 17,335 titles that are pertinent to the case. This indicates that Verizon may be subject to a punishment of up to $2.6 billion.
On the other hand, music companies filed a lawsuit against Cox Communications in 2018, alleging that the company refused to completely delete the accounts of individuals who were illegally downloading music. In the beginning, a jury in a United States District Court ruled in favor of the labels and ordered Cox to pay damages totaling one billion dollars. However, early this year, an appeals court reversed the conviction and determined that the provider did not directly profit from the activity of its users. An further group of record labels filed a lawsuit against Charter Communications in 2021, alleging that the corporation had turned a “blind eye” to the issue of music piracy. The lawsuit was filed for the theft of songs.