On October 22, the News/Media Alliance, together with the Association of American Publishers, filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in support of the respondents in Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment. The case concerns whether a service provider can be held liable for “materially contributing” to copyright infringement when it knew of infringing activity and did not terminate access, without proof that the service provider otherwise intended to promote it.
The amicus brief notes the importance of copyright to the news, media, journal, education, and book publishing industries, and emphasizes the role the doctrine of contributory infringement by material contribution plays in enabling publishers to protect their works in the online environment where publishers’ works are pirated at a massive scale by direct infringers who are difficult to identify or sue. The brief discusses how publishers have relied on contributory infringement in the context of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the implications eliminating or narrowing the material contribution doctrine would have on publishers, including when pursuing infringements occurring on services such as digital marketplaces (e.g., eBay) or video-sharing and social media platforms (e.g., YouTube, Facebook).