In a SCOTUS brief, the Trump administration backs Cox's argument that ISPs shouldn't have to terminate customers based on unproven copyright infringement claims
The Trump administration is backing cable company Cox in a battle that could determine whether Internet service providers are forced to disconnect users accused of piracy.
Context & Ripple Effects
The dispute sits in a longer fight over whether an access provider can be held responsible for customers’ alleged infringement. Music companies’ case against Cox followed their 2018 allegations that Cox failed to cut off repeat infringers, while an earlier ruling had already imposed liability on the provider.
The administration’s intervention matters because it places the federal government behind a narrower duty for ISPs before the Court. The question was later resolved in Cox’s favor through a unanimous Supreme Court ruling limiting ISP liability, making this brief an important signal of the legal position that prevailed.
First-order effects
- Cox gains federal support for its argument that accusation notices alone should not compel disconnection of broadband customers.
- Rights holders face a more difficult immediate case for treating an ISP’s failure to terminate accounts as sufficient grounds for secondary copyright liability.
Second-order effects
- Other ISPs gain support for maintaining infringement-notice and enforcement processes that stop short of terminating service based solely on unproven claims; the subsequent Frontier settlement over demanded customer disconnections shows the commercial pressure surrounding that choice.
- Labels and publishers have greater incentive to focus enforcement on direct infringers or seek clearer proof of an ISP’s culpable conduct, rather than relying on account-termination demands.
Third-order effects
- If courts consistently reject liability based on non-termination alone, copyright enforcement shifts away from deputizing broadband providers as account police and toward claims requiring stronger evidence of provider participation.
- The later withdrawal of a music-publisher case against Verizon after the Cox decision suggests the precedent can narrow a broader litigation strategy against network operators.
The trend: This is part of a broader recalibration of online copyright enforcement toward limiting intermediary liability when claims against users have not been proven.