Internet service providers warn of mass disconnections in Supreme Court battle with record labels

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in a major copyright dispute that internet service providers warn could force millions of Americans offline and turn companies that provide connectivity into “internet police.”

At issue are peer-to-peer file-sharing protocols like BitTorrent that allow users to download pirated music. The nation’s largest record labels are attempting to hold internet providers liable for copyright infringement because they declined to cut off online access to users they knew were downloading bootlegged music.

Cox Communications, an ISP that is fighting that effort at the Supreme Court, warned the justices that making providers liable for the online conduct of customers would lead to a crackdown that would “yield mass evictions from the internet,” terminating connections at “homes, barracks, hospitals, and hotels, upon bare accusation” of copyright infringement by creators.

“That notion turns internet providers into internet police,” the company told the court, “and jeopardizes internet access for millions of users.”

But Sony Music Entertainment and the other music companies that sued Cox say the ISP was more than an innocent bystander and was instead enabling “habitual offenders” to maximize profits. While Cox “waxes poetic” in its brief about the importance of the internet, Sony argued, “it neglects to mention that it had no qualms about terminating 619,711 subscribers for nonpayment over the same period that it terminated just 32” for serial copyright abuse.

“While Cox stokes fears of innocent grandmothers and hospitals being tossed off the internet for someone else’s infringement, Cox put on zero evidence that any subscriber here fit that bill,” the music companies said.