WASHINGTON, DC, Nov. 7, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Stone Mitchell is pleased to announce that a federal jury in Austin, Texas, on behalf of Stein Mitchell clients Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, has entered a $46.8 million preliminary copyright infringement judgment against Internet service provider Grande Communications liked.

Stein Mitchell filed the lawsuit in April 2017 on behalf of the plaintiffs, who are made up of the big three record labels. The verdict was returned on November 3, 2022, and the case was tried alongside co-counsel Jenner & Block and Scott Douglass McConnico.

The record labels alleged that Grande was liable for contributory copyright infringement by providing internet service to subscribers known to be repeatedly infringers, ignoring over a million notices of copyright infringement for seven years, and never terminating or otherwise taking action against repeat infringers even when Grande had done hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of notifications about specific customers.

In more than five hard-fought years, Stein Mitchell denied Grande’s motion to dismiss the contributory infringement claim; conducted an extensive document search with over a million documents created; took and defended 40 statements; defeated Grande’s motion for summary judgment and daubert movements; and obtained summary judgment against Grande’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) alleged “safe harbor” defense. Several of the court’s pre-trial decisions have been cited as precedents in later cases.

After a nearly month-long trial, the jury found Grande to be partially responsible for the infringement of 1,403 record company copyrighted sound recordings. The jury also found that Grande acted with intent and was therefore liable for increased statutory damages under copyright law and awarded the plaintiffs $33,333.33 for each of the offending recordings, for a total of…