A billion-dollar judgment in a piracy lawsuit involving a important Internet assistance company could pressure ISPs to terminate extra consumer accounts and “punish the harmless and guilty alike,” advocacy teams have warned. Urging an appeals courtroom to overturn the ruling, the groups wrote that “upholding this verdict would outcome in innocent and susceptible users losing necessary Internet entry.”

These considerations were being lifted in a court docket filing final week by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Centre For Democracy and Engineering, the American Library Association, the Association of School And Analysis Libraries, the Association of Investigate Libraries, and Community Expertise. The groups’ filing was made to the US Courtroom of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in aid of an attraction in search of to overturn a ruling in a circumstance released by history labels in opposition to Cox Communications.

“In going following Net support suppliers for the steps of