Music Labels: Grande's Cert Petition 'Divorced From Reality'
Grande Communications' certiorari petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to settle a question "utterly divorced from reality" and offers "nothing certworthy," record label UMG Records and others said Friday (docket 24-967) in an opposition brief. Grande Communications is challenging an October ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a lower court finding that Grande was liable for contributory copyright infringement for not terminating the service of internet users accused of piracy.
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In its March cert petition Grande said the case "'presents a clear and intractable conflict" over whether, under the Copyright Act, an ISP is liable "for contributory infringement by providing content-neutral internet access to the general public and failing to terminate access after receiving notice someone at a customer’s IP address has infringed." The issue "has astounding legal and practical stakes." A clear regulatory framework is needed, instead of the current "scattershot" one, Grande added.
In their opposition brief, the labels said Grande's portrayal ignores the fact that the company's policy was to never terminate service to a customer for engaging in copyright infringement. In addition, they said the portrayal also ignores that Grande eschewed "more modest measures" like temporary suspensions or action-inducing notices. "That is a one-way ticket to liability in any jurisdiction," the labels said in opposition to Grande's cert petition. "It is also the plainly correct result under a straightforward application of this Court’s precedents."