Cox: The biggest violators are not residential users
Rosenkranz countered that Cox created its own anti-infringement program, sent out hundreds of warnings a day, suspended thousands of accounts a month, and worked with universities. He said the “top repeat violators” cited in the case were not individual households, but rather universities, hotels, and regional ISPs that buy connectivity from Cox to resell it to local users.
If Sony wins the case, “those are the institutions that are likely to be cut first because they are the ones that make the largest number of deposits.” [piracy notices],” the Cox lawyer said. Even in a multi-person household where the IP address breach is caught by a monitoring service, “you still don’t know who that person is.” [infringer] It is,” he said. At another point in the hearing, he pointed out that Sony could sue individual infringers directly instead of suing ISPs.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked Cox, “What incentive would you have to do anything if you win? If you win and only gain knowledge [of infringement] It’s not enough, why would you bother sending anyone [copyright] Notice in the future? What will be your responsibility?”
Rosenkranz replied, “For the simple reason that Cox is a good corporate citizen that cares a lot about what’s going on on its systems. We do all kinds of things that the law doesn’t require us to do.” After further questioning by Barrett, Rosenkranz admitted that he would not be at risk of further liability if Cox won the case.
Kagan said the DMCA safe harbor, which protects entities from liability if they take steps to fight infringement, “would do nothing” if the court sided with Cox. “Why would anyone care about going into a safe harbor if there is no obligation in the first place?” He said.
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