A group of film companies has dropped its piracy lawsuit against an ISP, withdrawing both a multi-million dollar damages claim and an injunction.

Following the ' Cox decision ,' in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ISPs are not liable for aiding and abetting copyright infringement simply because they continued to provide services to subscribers suspected of copyright infringement, the impact is spreading, with Google and X requesting the dismissal of their ongoing lawsuits, and a group of music companies that had sued ISPs dropping their cases . On April 21, 2026, a group of film companies also dropped a lawsuit against ISPs, including a claim for millions of dollars in damages.

Filmmakers Drop Piracy Liability Lawsuit Against ISP RCN * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/filmmakers-drop-piracy-liability-lawsuit-against-isp-rcn/

In August 2021, several film companies filed a lawsuit against ISP RCN , alleging that RCN 'failed to take appropriate action against those who repeatedly infringed copyrights and profited from their inaction.' According to the complaint, RCN received thousands of copyright infringement notices from the film companies but did not impose any restrictions, allowing piracy to continue. The same group of filmmakers had filed similar lawsuits against several other ISPs, including Grande and Verizon .

In 2022, RCN's motion to dismiss the lawsuit was rejected, and its claims of indirect and proxy infringement were accepted. Since then, the lawsuit has expanded with amendments to the complaint and the filing of parallel lawsuits, and the filmmakers' group has sought not only damages but also an order to block access to pirated websites.

The lawsuit between the film producers' group and RCN had been ongoing for approximately five years, but a joint agreement filed on April 21, 2026, indicated that the film companies had agreed to drop the lawsuit. This drop is final, and the lawsuit cannot be reinstated. Each party is responsible for their own legal costs.

The joint agreement does not explicitly state the reasons for the settlement. However, following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in March 2026 in a lawsuit filed against ISP Cox Communications by a group of music companies that 'in order to hold an ISP liable, it is necessary to prove that the service provider intended to infringe copyrights,' several other lawsuits against ISPs have been dropped, and it is likely that this agreement is based on similar reasons.

With the lawsuit withdrawn, the possibility of hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and site blocking demands will no longer be considered. The increasing number of lawsuits withdrawn following the Cox ruling, like this one, has made it difficult to obtain blocking demands for pirated websites through litigation. However, it has also been reported that several site blocking bills are currently under consideration in the United States.

While the Supreme Court ruled that ISPs are not liable for copyright infringement, new legislation to crack down on pirated websites is being introduced - GIGAZINE

As of the time of writing, neither the plaintiffs nor RCN have issued any official comments.