Court Sides Against Grande Communications In Battle With Record Companies

Siding with the record industry, a federal appellate court has upheld a finding that Grande Communications contributed to copyright infringement by failing to disconnect internet subscribers who were accused of unlawfully sharing music. A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said Grande (now owned by Astound Broadband) either knew or was willfully blind to identities of infringing subscribers, yet “made the choice to continue providing services to them anyway, rather than taking simple measures to prevent infringement.” The ruling comes in a battle dating to 2017, when Universal Music Group, Warner Records, and other record companies accused Grande of contributing to piracy by failing to take “meaningful action” against alleged file-sharers. The record companies' complaint, brought in federal court in Austin, alleged that the internet provider allowed “repeat infringers to use the Grande service to continue to infringe plaintiffs’ copyrights without consequence.”