Music labels sue Verizon for more than $2.6 billion
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Powerful record labels, including UMG Recordings, Warner Music, and Sony Music, filed a lawsuit Friday accusing Verizon of intentionally ignoring its customers’ copyright violations for profit, reports Music Business Worldwide.
The plaintiffs say they are entitled to as much as $150,000 per violation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which could add up to as much as $2.6 billion.
The lawsuit includes a list of 17,335 tracks from artists or bands, including Elvis Presley, Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, and Brandy. (Here’s the list if you’d like to dive further in — it starts with Sam Cooke and ends with Wiz Khalifa.) The labels say they’ve sent “nearly 350,000 infringement notices” to Verizon since 2020, alleging that...