![\"rightscorp\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/rightscorp-1.jpg\")
Spearheaded by the RIAA, several major music industry companies have filed lawsuits against some of the largest U.S. Internet providers. <\/p>\nSpearheaded by the RIAA, several major music industry companies have filed lawsuits against some of the largest U.S. Internet providers. <\/p>\n
The music companies accuse these providers of failing to terminate accounts of the most egregious pirates, thus ignoring millions of copyright infringement notices.<\/p>\n
The liability lawsuits are seen as a major threat to the ISP industry, as multiple companies face hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damages. This is not just a hypothetical threat, as the $1 billion verdict<\/a> against Cox has shown.<\/p>\n In response to these lawsuits, several ISPs have submitted counterclaims, scrutinizing the copyright infringement notices. Internet provider RCN did the same and also targeted the RIAA and anti-piracy company Rightscorp<\/a> in its response. <\/p>\n Rightscorp\u2019s notices, which often included a settlement offer, are used as evidence in music industry lawsuits. However, RCN believes that some of these notices were fraudulent. Making matters worse, Rightscorp allegedly destroyed evidence which makes it hard to verify the claims.<\/p>\n Last month Rightscorp filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, stating that RCN failed to state a claim under California Unfair Competition Law (UCL). Last week, the ISP countered, noting that there are plenty of reasons to continue the case.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past ten years, Counterclaim Defendant Rightscorp, Inc. has made millions of accusations of copyright infringement against users of RCN\u2019s internet service,\u201d RCN informed the court. <\/p>\n \u201cRightscorp does this for profit \u2014 it sends notices of copyright infringement in the hopes of extracting settlements from accused infringers, and Plaintiffs pay Rightscorp to generate these notices to pressure ISPs like RCN into terminating the internet access of accused infringers.\u201d <\/p>\n Sending copyright infringement notices by itself is not \u2018fraudulent\u2019 nor is it by definition \u2018unfair.\u2019 However, RNC argues that these descriptions fit the bill here, since Rightscorp destroyed the underlying evidence. <\/p>\n In addition, Rightscorp allegedly refused to digitally sign its emails, so RCN could verify their legitimacy. The latter is a warranted concern, as imposters have previously sent fake settlement requests.<\/p>\n The lack of evidence is a serious problem, RCN notes. The company believes that Rightscorp, among other things, knowingly configured its system in a way that would result in false positives. However, with all underlying evidence destroyed this can\u2019t be checked. <\/p>\n As part of its defense, Rightscorp countered that RCN wasn\u2019t \u2018injured\u2019 by the piracy notices but the ISP disagrees. It notes that it incurred substantial costs in order to handle the millions of notices the anti-piracy company sent. <\/p>\n It is now up to the New Jersey District Court to decide whether the motion to dismiss should be granted or not. Meanwhile, however, there appear to be some problems at Rightscorp\u2019s end. <\/p>\n Over the past few days, we have been unable to reach the site, and the last Google cache version dates back two weeks ago. TorrentFreak reached out to Rightscorp to check if this is a temporary issue, but we have yet to hear back. <\/p>\n Website or no website, RCN hopes that the case will continue. Ideally, they want the court to grant an injunction that requires Rightscorp to properly sign its emails and preserve all the important evidence. <\/p>\n \u2014-<\/em><\/p>\n A copy of Rightscorp\u2019s motion to dismiss is available here (pdf)<\/a> and RCN\u2019s reply can be found here (pdf)<\/a>. <\/p>\n From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n