AT&T, Verizon Failed to Block Internet for Piracy, Suits Say

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. failed to terminate the internet services of users who engaged in online piracy despite being notified by the copyright owners of movies like “Dallas Buyers Club,” infringement suits filed in Texas and New York federal courts allege.

The internet service providers shouldn’t receive the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor protection because they didn’t adequately implement a policy of terminating repeat copyright infringers, Voltage Pictures LLC said in the complaints.

Voltage and its affiliates sent both AT&T and Verizon more than 100,000 infringement notices, according to the complaints. But “in the last few years ...