Charter Communications Settles Copyright Lawsuits Filed by Majors – Music Industry

US Internet Service Provider, Charter Communications reached a settlement with major record companies who sued the firm in 2019 in relation to copyright infringement committed by their clients.

In fact, the labels sued Charter twice for this, and both lawsuits have been settled.

These were two of a series of lawsuits brought by the recording industry against US internet providers who were accused of not doing enough to stop breaches on their networks.

In this case, Charter has argued that imprints are prone to issuing dubious copyright notices, meaning that such notices cannot be relied upon as strong evidence that any user is, in fact, regularly infringing copyright.

But those arguments have generally failed, meaning lawsuits from the recording industry could continue. And that has apparently made negotiating out-of-court settlements attractive, even if securing such settlements is quite expensive.

Another of the providers in the sights, brighthouse, confirmed that he had reached such an agreement earlier this week, just as his case was due to be heard in court.

Bright House is actually a former provider, having been purchased in 2016 by Charter Communications. Which meant that as soon as it was confirmed that Bright House had settled out of court, it seemed likely that the same outcome with Charter was also imminent.

The record companies told the Tampa court in 2019 that Bright House deliberately refused to act against known repeat offenders, even after receiving “hundreds of thousands” of notices.

Bright House responded that it did not have the ability to monitor its customers or control their behavior, but it did terminate the accounts of repeat offenders. He also said that he could not verify the accuracy of the labels’ ads and accused them of engaging in “wanton and deceptive enforcement conduct.”

Bright House and the stamps, included Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony MusicThey told the court that they had settled the case without providing further details.