In a brief spearheaded by leading copyright scholars Rebecca Tushnet (Harvard Law), Mark Lemley (Stanford Law), and Chris Springman (NYU Law), the ACLU, the ACLU of Virginia, and the Center for Democracy and Technology filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment. In this significant copyright case, the Supreme Court will review a 4th Circuit ruling holding that an internet service provider could be liable for vast copyright damages because it took insufficient steps to disconnect IP addresses accused of downloading copyrighted material. The case is at the Supreme Court on the merits docket, with oral arguments scheduled for Monday, December 1, 2025.

This case presents the question whether a person can be convicted of disorderly conduct for speech that the state deems “obscene” but that does not actually qualify as unprotected obscenity under the First Amendment. The outcome of this case could have serious implications for free speech and the rights of criminal defendants in Pennsylvania, where law enforcement frequently misuses the disorderly conduct statute to punish constitutionally protected speech.