Verizon faces lawsuit after record labels say it profits from piracy

The plaintiffs said Verizon chose to ignore their reports and refused to terminate users' accounts.

A group of record labels that include Universal, Capitol, Warner and Sony has filed a lawsuit against Verizon, accusing it of "contributory and vicarious copyright infringement." Verizon "knowingly provides its high-speed service to a massive community of online pirates," the companies said in their complaint. Apparently, the plaintiffs have sent the internet provider "hundreds of thousands" of copyright infringement notices over the past few years, identifying subscribers who've been using Verizon's network to share copyrighted music via peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. 

Verizon, they said, acknowledged that it received their notices. The company allegedly chose to ignore them and continued to provide internet services to "thousands of known repeat infringers so it could continue to collect millions of dollars from them." Since it didn't terminate the accounts of the alleged copyright infringers, Verizon "obtained a direct financial benefit" from their "continuing infringing activity," the plaintiffs argued. The labels are asking for damages worth up to $150,000 for each work infringed. Based on the list posted by Ars Technica, 17,335 titles are involved in the case, which means Verizon could be fined for as much as $2.6 billion.

By Mariella Moon.

Full story at Engadget.