Overview
- The Court, which ruled Wednesday, said Cox can be liable only if it meant for its service to be used for piracy or if it encouraged it.
- The justices reversed the 4th Circuit’s contributory‑liability holding and ended the labels’ push to reinstate a roughly $1 billion award from a 2019 jury verdict.
- Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed with the outcome but warned the reasoning narrows future paths for secondary liability.
- The lawsuit cited 163,148 infringement notices and said Cox terminated about 32 accounts as a jury found infringement of 10,017 works.
- Cox, the Justice Department, and major tech and civil‑liberties groups said the ruling protects access for households, universities, and hospitals, while the RIAA urged policymakers to pursue new ways to curb mass piracy.