Altice 'Deliberately Refused' to Act Against Music Pirates, Says BMG

Altice, through its high-speed internet service, “knowingly contributed to, and earned substantial profits from, copyright infringement committed by thousands of its subscribers,” alleged BMG and affiliates in a complaint (docket 2:22-cv-00471) filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern division of Texas in Marshall.

The alleged infringement injured plaintiffs, their recording artists and songwriters and others “whose livelihoods depend on the proper licensing of music and the ability to be fairly compensated” for use of their music, said the complaint. For years, alleged the complaint, Altice “deliberately refused” to take reasonable measures to curb its customers’ use of the broadband service to infringe copyrights after notices of “particular customers engaging in repeated, and prolonged acts of infringement.”

Claiming “millions of infringements” by Altice users, BMG said the provider has been given “detailed and specific written notice” of infringement, advising Altice of subscribers’ “blatant and systematic use” of its service to illegally distribute its copyrighted works using the BitTorrent internet transfer protocol. It cited Sandvine data saying BitTorrent communications were nearly 3% of global internet traffic in 2021 and was the top source of upstream traffic.

Altice failed to terminate subscriptions or take other meaningful action against repeat infringers “it knew about,” BMG alleged, “despite professed commitment to discipline repeat offenders.” The broadband provider’s service enables its users to transfer BMG’s copyrighted works “on a mass scale” with a tiered pricing structure that delivers faster connections for subscribers paying higher fees, it noted.

Though Altice has taken disciplinary actions against customers for nonpayment, bandwidth overuse, spam “and other activity that is at odds with [its] business interests,” it hasn’t taken comparable action against subscribers that it knows engage in repeated copyright infringement because that “likely would affect Altice’s bottom line,” alleged the complaint. That leaves the copyright owners to “bear the brunt of the harm caused by the rampant infringement, even as Altice continues to pull in lucrative subscription fees,” it alleged.

Altice’s policy says subscribers may have their service temporarily interrupted or suspended for alleged copyright infringement, but it “continued to provide internet services to even the most prolific infringers,” alleged the complaint. The availability of high-speed access to services that facilitate internet-based music piracy, “served to draw customers to Altice’s services and to help retain existing subscribers,” it said. The more bandwidth its subscribers required for pirating content, “the more money Altice made,” BMG alleged.

The plaintiffs seek damages up to $150,000 for each work infringed, plus attorneys’ fees and costs and injunctive relief prohibiting further “contributory infringements” of their copyrights. For Altice’s “vicarious infringement,” the plaintiffs are entitled to damages and “Altice’s profits” for each infringement, they said.