Labels File Notice of Protective Cross-Appeal in Case vs. ISP Grande

The plaintiff record labels in the case against internet service provider Grande Communications Network filed notice Monday (docket 1:17-cv-00365) of a conditional cross-appeal at the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court of the final judgment entered Jan. 30 in their favor by U.S. District Judge David Ezra for Western Texas in Austin. A jury awarded the labels $46.77 million in statutory damages Nov. 3 for Grande’s willful contributory infringement of 1,403 copyrighted works, and Ezra’s judgment mirrored the jury’s verdict. But Grande filed a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, or alternatively a new trial, and also is appealing Ezra’s judgment and the verdict to the 5th Circuit (see 2303020031). The labels’ cross-appeal is conditional on Grande’s appeal resulting in any portion of the final judgment “being reversed or remanded” to the district court, said the notice. The labels acknowledge Grande filed a renewed motion for judgment and its notice of appeal will become effective once the district court resolves that motion, it said. “The same is true” for the labels’ notice of conditional cross-appeal, it said.