BMG Seeks Nearly $13.5 Million in Legal Fees in Cox Piracy Row

BMG wants $10.48 million in attorney's fees and $2.92 million in expenses from Cox Communications, calling its copyright infringement legal fight with the cable company "exactly the sort of case where a Court should award fees and expenses." In a motion (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, BMG called Cox "a willful infringer that spent years crafting a sham (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) 'safe harbor' defense ... [and] paired it with a host of baseless legal arguments and constant efforts to prevent discovery." In a separate motion (in Pacer) Friday, Cox asked for $71,835 in attorney's fees from plaintiff Round Hill Music, plus $35,000 for work on the motion and reply itself. BMG's motion accused Cox of forcing "near constant discovery litigation" and pointed to its failure to identify millions of infringement notices it received but deleted in response to a BMG interrogatory. BMG said Cox witnesses evaded questions and were unforthcoming. BMG said Cox attempted to focus discovery on Rightscorp conduct rather than its own, seeking every document BMG had related to Rightscorp and voluminous discovery on Rightscorp itself. BMG also said Cox compressed line spacing in violation of local rules "to squeeze every possible argument" into a motion for summary judgment and then "claimed it was confused about the meaning of 'double-spaced' though every single document Cox filed through the first eight months of litigation maintained proper line spacing." Absent "a fee award, the costs of litigation will consume much of the value of the jury's verdict," BMG said. Cox said Round Hill didn't own the copyrights underlying the multitudes of copyright infringement notices that came from Rightscorp, but "Round Hill came into this Court and sued Cox anyway ... then prevaricated throughout discovery." While "few things in this lawsuit have been simple or clear cut, Cox's entitlement to reasonable fees for the defense against Round Hill is manifest," it said. Cox is appealing the $25 million verdict awarded BMG (see 1608190030). Cox and Round Hill didn't comment Monday.