Major US music publishers filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday accusing Twitter of failing to take action to stop “rampant” copyright infringement on the platform. The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) is demanding up to $150,000 per unlicensed work used on the social network, which could push the demand to hundreds of millions of dollars.
David Israelite, executive director of the NMPA, stated that Twitter is the largest social networking platform that has completely refused to license millions of songs on its service. He noted that Twitter is aware that music is filtered, released, and streamed by billions of people daily on its platform.
The lawsuit claims that Twitter’s response to copyright complaints has not improved since Elon Musk acquired the platform late last year for $44 billion. It alleges that Twitter’s internal affairs related to this case are chaotic and points to the departure of the company’s head of trust and safety earlier this month, although the reasons were not made public.
The plaintiffs argue that Twitter refuses to stop infringement of copyrighted music because it knows the platform will be more popular and profitable if it allows such infringement. They also claim that allowing the use of unlicensed music in Twitter posts gives the platform an advantage over competitors such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, which pay fees to music publishers. According to the plaintiffs, Twitter is fueling its business with numerous infringing copies of musical compositions.
This lawsuit highlights the importance of protecting copyrights in the digital realm and the responsibility of platforms to ensure compliance with intellectual property laws. Music publishers are seeking fair compensation for the unauthorized use of their works and hope that this lawsuit will prompt Twitter to take steps to prevent copyright infringement on its platform.