In Remanded BMG/Cox Copyright Fight, No Bar on 'Theft' Language, Court Says

BMG won't be barred from referring to copyright infringement as stealing, theft or some similar term when issues remanded to U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, are retried, Judge Liam O'Grady said in a docket 14-cv-01611-LO-JFA order (in Pacer) Tuesday. The judge said such a bar, as requested by Cox (see here, in Pacer), wouldn't be appropriate since such language is "not unduly prejudicial" to the company. The ISP argued such argumentative statements "risk confusing the jury" and asked that BMG counsel be ordered to use instead such language as "alleged infringement of BMG's Copyright rights." The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February reaffirmed the lower court's denial of a safe harbor defense for Cox in BMG's copyright infringement complaint and remanded the case for a new trial because of jury instruction errors (see 1802010026). That is scheduled to begin Aug. 28.