$RIHT ~ Righstcorp Clients BMG Music and Round Hill Music Sue ISP Cox Communications for Copyright Infringement
New York, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 10, 2014 / SeeThruEquity, a leading New York City based independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced that it has issued a special update on Rightscorp, Inc. (RIHT) regarding the recent lawsuit filed by its clients BMG Music and Round Hill Music against internet service provider Cox Communications for copyright infringement. We initiated coverage on the company in June 2014 at which time we established a 12 month target price of $0.89.
The report is available at: RIHT Special Update Report. SeeThruEquity is an approved equity research contributor on Thomson First Call, CapitalIQ, FactSet, and Zack's. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.
Highlights from the report are as follows:
RIHT's clients file lawsuit against Cox Communications
On November 26, 2014, RIHT's clients BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music (Plaintiffs) filed a lawsuit against Cox Communications for copyright infringement. According to the lawsuit, Plaintiffs claim that as a result of Righstcorp innovative technology, they were able to identify and inform Cox Communications of over seven million acts of copyright infringement committed by over 200,000 Cox subscribers over a certain time period. Furthermore, plaintiffs claimed that Cox did not fulfill its obligations under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, including terminating the accounts of the repeat offenders, and therefore Cox was itself liable for the infringements committed by the offending subscribers.
Plaintiffs claim that Cox was acting contrary to its published policy of terminating, suspending or otherwise penalizing subscriber accounts that repeatedly commit copyright infringement through its network in any meaningful numbers. Furthermore, plaintiffs also claim that Cox taking measures to avoid and stop receiving RIHT's notifications related to infringements, suggesting the ISP was basically treating RIHT's e-mails as spam. The lawsuit was filed on the basis of RIHT's data which not only provides the number of infringements, but also the specific IP addresses that are engaged in tens of thousands of copyright infringements. This lawsuit is the first of its kind in the world of entertainment copyrights, and if successful, could provide a significant catalyst to Rightscorp since the company's patented technology provides the data regarding specific instances of copyright infringement which are at the core of the plaintiffs' claims.
Brief Primer on DMCA Act and Copyright Alert System (CAS) strengthen lawsuit
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), enacted in 1998, states that ISPs must implement a policy to terminate repeat copyright infringers in order to have a safe harbor shield from their liability to copyright owners whose rights are violated on their networks. One of the important guidelines of DMCA is that the ISP must provide notice and takedown procedures that offer easy ways for copyright holders to disable access to copyrighted material. To meet these guidelines, majority of ISPs in the U.S. have formed and are party to the Copyright Alert System (CAS), a six-step process towards terminating accounts known to repeatedly pirate copyrighted material. However, Cox has its own system that terminates a subscriber only after 12 complaints of copyright infringements.
Damages could potentially run into millions of dollars
If successful, BMG and Round Hill Music could potentially receive millions of dollars in penalties from Cox for contributory and vivid copyright infringement, and a judicial order requiring Cox to promptly forward plaintiffs' infringement notices to their subscribers. RIHT currently charges $20 for each separate infringement in out of court settlement whereas a court settlement requires a whopping $150k for each infringement. Cox has currently 4.0mn subscribers, each of which pays ~$100 a month. If Cox opts for court settlement, it might have to terminate 200k subscriber accounts which will result in a revenue loss of ~$240mn (200k infringers*$100*12) annually. Additionally, each subscriber might have to pay $150k per infringement. However, out of court settlement will result in significant benefits for both subscribers and other related parties. Subscribers will pay only $20/infringement while BMG/Round Hill and Cox will save on litigation related costs.
Maintain Price Target of $0.89
We are maintaining our price target of $0.89. We believe any positive outcome from the litigation will validate the capabilities of RIHT's technology in effectively tracking copyright infringements and will result in significantly increased demand for its technology.
Please review important disclosures on our website at www.seethruequity.com.
About Righstcorp, Inc.
Rightscorp (RIHT) is a leading provider of monetization services for artists and holders of copyrighted Intellectual Property (IP). The Company's patent pending digital loss prevention technology focuses on the infringement of digital content such as music, movies, software, books and games and ensures that owners and creators are rightfully paid for their IP. Rightscorp implements existing laws to solve copyright infringements by collecting payments from illegal file sharing activities via notifications sent through Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The Company's technology identifies copyright infringers, who are offered a reasonable settlement option when compared to the legal liability defined in the Digital Millennium Copyrights Act (DMCA). Based on the fact that 22% of all Internet traffic is used to distribute copyrighted content without permission or compensation to the creators, Rightscorp is pursuing an estimated $2.3 billion opportunity and has monetized major media titles through relationships with industry leaders. http://www.rightscorp.com/
About SeeThruEquity
SeeThruEquity is an equity research and corporate access firm focused on companies with less than $1 billion in market capitalization. The research is not paid for and is unbiased. We do not conduct any investment banking or commission based business. We are approved to contribute our research to Thomson Reuters One (First Call), Capital IQ, FactSet, Zacks and distribute our research to our database of opt-in investors. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.
For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.
Contact:
Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
info@seethruequity.com
SOURCE: SeeThruEquity
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/seethruequity-...00610.html
New York, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 10, 2014 / SeeThruEquity, a leading New York City based independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced that it has issued a special update on Rightscorp, Inc. (RIHT) regarding the recent lawsuit filed by its clients BMG Music and Round Hill Music against internet service provider Cox Communications for copyright infringement. We initiated coverage on the company in June 2014 at which time we established a 12 month target price of $0.89.
The report is available at: RIHT Special Update Report. SeeThruEquity is an approved equity research contributor on Thomson First Call, CapitalIQ, FactSet, and Zack's. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.
Highlights from the report are as follows:
RIHT's clients file lawsuit against Cox Communications
On November 26, 2014, RIHT's clients BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music (Plaintiffs) filed a lawsuit against Cox Communications for copyright infringement. According to the lawsuit, Plaintiffs claim that as a result of Righstcorp innovative technology, they were able to identify and inform Cox Communications of over seven million acts of copyright infringement committed by over 200,000 Cox subscribers over a certain time period. Furthermore, plaintiffs claimed that Cox did not fulfill its obligations under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, including terminating the accounts of the repeat offenders, and therefore Cox was itself liable for the infringements committed by the offending subscribers.
Plaintiffs claim that Cox was acting contrary to its published policy of terminating, suspending or otherwise penalizing subscriber accounts that repeatedly commit copyright infringement through its network in any meaningful numbers. Furthermore, plaintiffs also claim that Cox taking measures to avoid and stop receiving RIHT's notifications related to infringements, suggesting the ISP was basically treating RIHT's e-mails as spam. The lawsuit was filed on the basis of RIHT's data which not only provides the number of infringements, but also the specific IP addresses that are engaged in tens of thousands of copyright infringements. This lawsuit is the first of its kind in the world of entertainment copyrights, and if successful, could provide a significant catalyst to Rightscorp since the company's patented technology provides the data regarding specific instances of copyright infringement which are at the core of the plaintiffs' claims.
Brief Primer on DMCA Act and Copyright Alert System (CAS) strengthen lawsuit
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), enacted in 1998, states that ISPs must implement a policy to terminate repeat copyright infringers in order to have a safe harbor shield from their liability to copyright owners whose rights are violated on their networks. One of the important guidelines of DMCA is that the ISP must provide notice and takedown procedures that offer easy ways for copyright holders to disable access to copyrighted material. To meet these guidelines, majority of ISPs in the U.S. have formed and are party to the Copyright Alert System (CAS), a six-step process towards terminating accounts known to repeatedly pirate copyrighted material. However, Cox has its own system that terminates a subscriber only after 12 complaints of copyright infringements.
Damages could potentially run into millions of dollars
If successful, BMG and Round Hill Music could potentially receive millions of dollars in penalties from Cox for contributory and vivid copyright infringement, and a judicial order requiring Cox to promptly forward plaintiffs' infringement notices to their subscribers. RIHT currently charges $20 for each separate infringement in out of court settlement whereas a court settlement requires a whopping $150k for each infringement. Cox has currently 4.0mn subscribers, each of which pays ~$100 a month. If Cox opts for court settlement, it might have to terminate 200k subscriber accounts which will result in a revenue loss of ~$240mn (200k infringers*$100*12) annually. Additionally, each subscriber might have to pay $150k per infringement. However, out of court settlement will result in significant benefits for both subscribers and other related parties. Subscribers will pay only $20/infringement while BMG/Round Hill and Cox will save on litigation related costs.
Maintain Price Target of $0.89
We are maintaining our price target of $0.89. We believe any positive outcome from the litigation will validate the capabilities of RIHT's technology in effectively tracking copyright infringements and will result in significantly increased demand for its technology.
Please review important disclosures on our website at www.seethruequity.com.
About Righstcorp, Inc.
Rightscorp (RIHT) is a leading provider of monetization services for artists and holders of copyrighted Intellectual Property (IP). The Company's patent pending digital loss prevention technology focuses on the infringement of digital content such as music, movies, software, books and games and ensures that owners and creators are rightfully paid for their IP. Rightscorp implements existing laws to solve copyright infringements by collecting payments from illegal file sharing activities via notifications sent through Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The Company's technology identifies copyright infringers, who are offered a reasonable settlement option when compared to the legal liability defined in the Digital Millennium Copyrights Act (DMCA). Based on the fact that 22% of all Internet traffic is used to distribute copyrighted content without permission or compensation to the creators, Rightscorp is pursuing an estimated $2.3 billion opportunity and has monetized major media titles through relationships with industry leaders. http://www.rightscorp.com/
About SeeThruEquity
SeeThruEquity is an equity research and corporate access firm focused on companies with less than $1 billion in market capitalization. The research is not paid for and is unbiased. We do not conduct any investment banking or commission based business. We are approved to contribute our research to Thomson Reuters One (First Call), Capital IQ, FactSet, Zacks and distribute our research to our database of opt-in investors. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.
For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.
Contact:
Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
info@seethruequity.com
SOURCE: SeeThruEquity
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/seethruequity-...00610.html
