Cox Communications v. Sony Music: What It Means for Copyright Law

Rose Leda Ehler (Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP), Robert M. ("Bobby") Schwartz (Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP), and Jacqueline Charlesworth (Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz) will break down Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment from the ground up: the background of the dispute, the billion-dollar jury verdict that started it all, and how the case traveled through the Fourth Circuit before landing at the Supreme Court. Panelists will walk through the Court's holding that an ISP is not contributorily liable for its users' infringement unless it induced that infringement or tailored its service for infringing activity, and examine the reasoning behind it, including the majority opinion and Justice Sotomayor's concurrence. The panel will also address what the decision does not resolve and what practitioners, rights holders, and platforms should be thinking about going forward.