The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has filed a lawsuit against Twitter on behalf of 17 music publishers. The allegation: Twitter is said to have committed copyright infringement by publishing copyrighted music without a license. The NMPA is seeking up to $250 million in damages.
The details of the lawsuit
The lawsuit was filed in a federal district court in Nashville, Tennessee. It alleges that Twitter published approximately 1700 songs without a license. The NMPA is seeking $150,000 in damages for each of those songs, bringing the total to about $250 million.
The role of Elon Musk
The lawsuit alleges that Twitter terminated the music licensing agreement in the wake of Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition due to excessive costs. Negotiations with the three major music labels, Universal, Sony and Warner, have stalled since the acquisition by Musk, it claims.
Responses to copyright infringement
The music publishers claim to have notified Twitter of the infringements, following Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) guidelines. Twitter is accused of delaying and ignoring these notifications. In addition, the lawsuit references tweets from Elon Musk in which he called the “overzealous DMCA” a “plague on humanity.”
The music industry’s position
The music industry accuses Twitter of gentrifying its service by publishing music videos and live recordings of concerts, as well as other videos that feature music. This is especially relevant since the introduction of Twitter Blue, which offers the ability to upload longer videos.
Twitter’s reaction
So far, Twitter has not issued a statement regarding the NMPA’s allegations. It remains to be seen how the company will respond to these serious allegations.
