Ryan Baker Quoted by Law360 About Supreme Court Music Case That Could Impact AI

Asked whether AI companies could be implicated in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court about internet service providers (ISPs) being held liable when their customers illegally download copyrighted materials, Partner Ryan Baker told Law360 on October 24, 2025, “This would absolutely open the door to all sorts of new theories of liability that would dramatically increase the legal exposure of these companies.”

The Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments about a Fourth Circuit decision to affirm a Virginia jury’s verdict against Cox Cable for its downstream users infringing the copyrights of more than 10,000 songs from the nation’s major music companies including Sony Music Entertainment and Capitol Records.

Baker said, “Even if the Court were to say, ‘We’re limiting this ruling to ISPs,’ it is impossible to imagine that wouldn’t be seen as a crack in the door.” Baker added that AI companies may be more vulnerable than ISPs to secondary liability.

“ISP technology, I think that’s pretty agnostic,” he said. “You start talking about AI – is it agnostic? I don’t know. There are lots of possible fact patterns you could have where AI could be seen as a facilitator.”