‘Bright House Communications’ Fights Back Deceptive DMCA Notices
Last updated July 28, 2020
- ‘Bright House Communications’ submitted a counterclaim against 60 music publishers.
- Allegedly, the music labels sent thousands of invalid and deceptive DMCAs to the ISP.
- The then tried to make a billion out of the situation through an RIAA-backed lawsuit.
It seems that more ISPs (internet service providers) are getting tired of copyright holders who are bombarding them with DMCA notices and are now fighting back with counterclaims. As reported by Torrent Freak, Bright House Communications, a New York-based American ISP, is now going against UMG Recordings, Capitol Records, Universal Music, Warner Music, EMI, Sony, and many more (a total of 60), accusing them submitting inaccurate and deceptive DMCA notices.
As such, the lawsuit that the music companies had filed against the particular ISP in 2019 does not stand legally.
Bright House is now demanding a trial by jury, damage compensation, coverage of court costs, and attorney fees. Moreover, they want an injunction that will prevent the music companies from submitting any more not based DMCA complaints in the future, and finally, any other measure or relief that the Florida District Court deems fair and reasonable.
The ISP is answering all of the claims made against it in the 2019 lawsuit one by one, but due to the large number, allow us to present a summary of their answers:
- While Bright House did receive DMCA notices, they had no way to confirm that these came from the music companies.
- Several DMCAs pointed to material that was not under the declared party's ownership at the time of their submission.
- Bight House Communications denies any wrongdoing and also rejects any allegations about knowingly participating in acts of piracy.
- In several points, the ISP denies having sufficient knowledge to admit or deny the claims, mostly concerning copyright ownership
The music publishers' case concerned violations that occurred between 2013 and 2016, and it was handled by RIAA, who acted as their representative. With more than 7,000 tracks included in the official complaint, the damage compensation could surpass the figure of one billion USD.
The plaintiffs even identified several repeat infringing IP addresses, with one of them being the subject of 340 notices. Allegedly, Bright House chose to ignore all of these warnings and continued to allow pirating subscribers to engage in copyright infringement activities.
On the other side, Bright House feels that they were on the receiving end of a massive wave of complaints, often unsubstantiated or plainly invalid. The fact that the music labels amended the list of works in the lawsuit a couple of months ago removing 280 works is an attestation of this wrongdoing according to the ISP.
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