Cox Communications wants a new trial in its digital piracy case with music label BMG, claiming a Virginia federal judge made several errors leading to a $25 million jury verdict against the MSO.
According to Reuters, Cox filed a brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, alleging that Judge Liam O’Grady “eviscerated" the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which the cable company said offers a safe harbor provision for ISPs that implement reasonable detergents to digital piracy among their subscribers.
RELATED: Cox loses appeal on piracy case, has to pay $25M to music label BMG
A Cox rep told FierceCable’s that the company doesn't comment on active litigation.
In August, O’Grady threw out Cox’s appeal of a verdict awarding music label BMG $25 million for digital piracy damages.
BMG, which has rights to top artists including David Bowie, Bruno Mars and Frank Ocean, filed the suit after its agent Rightscorp detected more than 1.8 million instances of infringement in connection with 1,397 copyrighted works.
In declining Cox’s appeal, Judge O’Grady said that the jury had more than enough evidence to conclude that the MSO didn’t do enough to warrant DMCA protections. He said Cox ignored BMG’s repeated requests to stop the piracy.
"In sum, the court finds Cox has not identified any ground that would warrant a new trial," the judge said in his ruling.
“Cox is a conduit service provider,” O’Grady added. “It provides approximately 4.5 million customers in the United States a connection (or a ‘pipeline’) to the internet. Cox’s relationship with its subscribers is governed by Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The AUP reserves the right to suspend or terminate customers who ‘use the service to post, copy, transmit or disseminate any content that infringes on patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademark, moral rights or proprietary rights of any party.”