Can Big Media use copyright law to cut off internet access?

This is the question on faculty member Jim Gibson’s mind — and the decision recently lay in the hands of the Supreme Court.

The case was Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment. “Over the last few years, some courts have imposed liability on internet service providers because … some of their customers committed copyright infringement,” Gibson said in an episode of Synopsis, Richmond Law’s YouTube series, where law professors explain complex legal issues. “The copyright owners have demanded that the ISP cancel the customer’s account.”

Gibson is one of the legal experts who filed an amicus brief urging SCOTUS to reverse this new trend.

“It’s nonsense,” he said. “It’s one thing to make YouTube take down an infringing video. It’s another thing to make an ISP deny internet access to an entire account because of some past infringement.”

The Supreme Court voted in favor of Cox Communications — the outcome for which Gibson advocated.