Several reports in the US claim that the lawsuits are in relation to accusations of the operators “turning a blind eye” to customers who illegally distribute and download pirated films.
The production companies allegedly want policies in place that would see the termination of accounts by repeat offenders.
The consortium of production firms that issued the lawsuit add that not enough was done to prevent piracy.
According to CMU, the lawsuit states: “For example, AT&T failed to terminate the account of its subscriber at IP address 104.5.19.25 even after AT&T received multiple notices of copyright infringement at this address. AT&T received at least 1000 notices of copyright infringement for this IP address”.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1988 criminalised access to copyrighted works.
The lawsuit notes, however, that none of the internet providers have policies in place that mandate ousting customers who repeatedly receive notices of copyright infringement.
AT&T and Verizon took part in the Copyright Alert System, a programme which ran in the 2010s by the music and movie industries that aimed to combat online piracy. The programme was active for around four years.
Verizon, AT&T and Comcast have so far not responded to the lawsuit or any allegations relating to the matter.
