Source: Broadband Breakfast

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2026 — The Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9-0 reversal in Cox v. Sony that shields internet service providers from liability for their subscribers’ copyright infringement and establishes a clarified test for secondary liability, holding that general-purpose tools cannot be held responsible for every misuse and that liability requires inducement or a product designed for infringement. A jury had earlier returned a $1 billion verdict against Cox on a theory of contributory liability, which the Fourth Circuit affirmed before the Supreme Court reversed. Corynne McSherry of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed an amicus brief for Cox, said the ruling provides predictability for both businesses and ordinary subscribers, and justices pressed Sony’s counsel during oral argument on whether ISPs should be required to cut off universities or coffee shops for a single user’s conduct.

Panelists on Broadband Breakfast Live Online linked the Court’s reasoning to past cases such as Betamax and noted the justices declined to rewrite copyright rules for new technology, leaving legislative change to Congress. The discussion noted roughly 100 pending copyright suits against AI developers in which plaintiffs argue works were copied for training and that large language models function as infringement engines; McSherry said that secondary liability theory is directly undercut by Cox and asserted that “LLMs are not infringement machines.” The broadcast also raised privacy concerns, with McSherry warning that AI amplifies surveillance risks and urging a comprehensive federal privacy law while noting state actions and California’s net neutrality protections, and panelists observed that DMCA Sections 1201 and 1202 continue to appear in AI complaints.