ISP Grande Communications Files Motion to Dismiss RIAA's Alleged Piracy Case

By Prei Dy, | June 21, 2017

An ISP company appealed to a Texas federal court to dismiss a case filed by RIAA. (Pixabay)

An ISP company appealed to a Texas federal court to dismiss a case filed by RIAA. (Pixabay)

Grande Communications, an internet service provider (ISP), has filed a motion to a federal court in Texas to dismiss a case filed by the music group RIAA earlier this year.

Grande Communications argued that it do not control the contents its subscribers are trying to access and it does not promote infringed materials. The company admitted that it has indeed received millions of takedown notices from anti-piracy firm Rightscorp. However, it pointed that such notices are flawed as Rightscorp could not detect actual copyright infringements, TorrentFreak noted.

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"These notices are so numerous and so lacking in specificity, that is infeasible for Grande to devote the time and resources required to meaningfully investigate them," Grande said in a statement.

"Moreover, the system that Rightscorp employs to generate its notices is incapable of detecting actual infringement and, therefore, is incapable of generating notices that reflect real infringement."

It further added that its subscribers could lose internet access even though they are using legitimate sites if Grande immediately took actions of the notices.

"To merely treat these allegations as true without investigation would be a disservice to Grande's subscribers," it wrote.

Furthermore, it further defended that even if the notices were proven to be an actual infringement, the identified IP addresses could have been used by strangers who also illegally connected to the subscribers' network.

Grande said it sees itself more as a victim of copyright infringement problem instead of a perpetrator.

"To hold Grande liable for copyright infringement simply because 'something must be done' to address this growing problem is to hold the wrong party accountable."

Under the law of the United States, internet service providers are required to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers "in appropriate circumstances."

Meanwhile, top ISPs are reportedly in a "very thorough" discussion with Rightscorp over an offer to hijack browsers of alleged pirates until a fine is made. Although the firms were not named, TorrentFreak noted these could include Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Century Link.

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