Overview
(February 18, 2016, Washington, DC) — Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s $25 million copyright jury trial win for music publishing house BMG Rights Management US has been named the largest verdict in Virginia in 2015. The annual list, compiled by Virginia Lawyers Weekly, ranks verdicts of at least $1 million that were handed down by a jury in Virginia in the previous calendar year. Not only did the BMG verdict take the top spot on the list, it was the only eight-figure verdict reported.
On December 17, a federal court jury in Virginia returned a $25 million verdict in favor of BMG, finding Internet Service Provider (ISP) Cox Communications guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement for enabling its subscribers’ illegal downloading of music created by BMG song writers. The jury’s verdict followed a two-week trial in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In its lawsuit, BMG, which holds copyrights to more than two million works, including those by Bruno Mars, Frank Ocean and other pop song writers, claimed that Cox contributed to massive illegal downloading and sharing of music by its users. A company BMG hired to track the downloads, Rightscorp, notified Cox of millions of infringements by Cox subscribers that Cox deliberately ignored.
Steptoe scored a pre-trial victory for BMG, when on November 19, the judge granted BMG’s partial summary judgment motion in full on two important issues: 1) BMG’s ownership of the 1,400 copyrights asserted in the case and 2) holding that Cox cannot claim safe harbor protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) because it did not reasonably implement a policy to terminate repeat infringers on its network. The decision marked the first safe harbor ruling against a conduit ISP under Section 512(a) of the DMCA.
Following the December precedent-setting jury verdict, Steptoe partner Michael Allan, who leads the team representing BMG, commented: “This is a major win for the music industry and all content creators. The jury sent a loud message that ISPs have responsibility for the illegal downloading by their subscribers. We anticipate that the win will have far-reaching implications.”
According to Virginia Lawyers Weekly, industry experts believe this verdict will lead to increased copyright enforcement efforts by copyright holders in the form of infringement notices sent to ISPs.
Along with Mr. Allan, the Steptoe team includes partners John Caracappa, Will Pecau, and Roger Warin, who handled both opening and closing arguments. The Washington-based intellectual property team also includes Paul Gennari, Jeff Theodore, Jeremy Engle, Stephanie Roberts, Li Guo, and Matthew Mazgaj, and Meg Kammerud in the firm’s Palo Alto office, and David Hecht in New York.
About Steptoe
Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm widely recognized for vigorous advocacy in complex litigation and arbitration, successful representation of clients before governmental agencies, and creative and practical advice in guiding business transactions. The firm has more than 500 lawyers and other professionals in offices in Beijing, Brussels, Century City, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Phoenix and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
