Digital Music Retailers Fail to Win Dismissal Of Infringement Suit for Systemic Practices

• Key Holding:
  A complaint made sufficient factual allegations of specific copyright infringement against the defendants even though it was couched in potentially improbable terms of system-wide infringement by major digital music retailers.

• Key Takeaway:
  A ruling on the adequacy of class allegations in the case should await the class certification stage.

The fact that a plaintiff’s copyright infringement claim had alleged widespread systemic infringement did not render them so implausible that they should be dismissed under Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled May 20 (Blagman v. Apple Inc., S.D.N.Y., 1:12-cv-05453-ALC-JCF, 5/20/13