Elon Musk's Copyright Blues: Music Labels Sing A $250M Litigation Song for Twitter
Elon Musk’s Twitter finds itself in a cacophony of legal trouble as music firms unleash a $250 million lawsuit, accusing the microblogging site of copyright infringement and demanding $150,000 per work violated.
What Happened: National Music Publishers’ Association has filed a lawsuit against Twitter, accusing it of violating songwriters’ copyrights.
The NMPA, representing music companies, including Sony Group Corp’s (NYSE:SONY) Sony Music and Universal Music Publishing Group (OTC:UMGNF), alleged that the site has been using their music without obtaining proper permission or paying the necessary licensing fees, reported Bloomberg.
See Also: Despite Elon Musk’s Critique, Mark Zuckerberg Admires His ‘Actions’ At Twitter
What Are The Allegations And Demands: In the complaint filed in federal court in Nashville, the NMPA seeks a court declaration that Twitter willfully infringed upon approximately 1700 songs. The association claims that Twitter’s platform is “rife with copyright infringement” and asserts that its “unlawful conduct enriches Twitter at publishers’ and their songwriters’ expense.”
As a result, the NMPA is seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each piece of work infringed, culminating in a total demand exceeding $250 million.
Twitter’s Pre-Acquisition Negotiations: Before Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, the company was reportedly engaged in discussions with music firms regarding potential licensing deals.
However, since the tech billionaire assumed control, these negotiations seem to have taken a back seat, as he has focused on internal restructuring and addressing concerns from advertisers who have distanced themselves from the platform.
What Twitter Has To Say On The Matter: At the time of writing, Twitter has not issued an official response to the lawsuit or the allegations made by the NMPA. However, the social media platform’s silence on the matter could mean it is preparing a strategic legal defense to counter the claims of copyright infringement.
Why It’s Important: For the unversed, platforms such as Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube, Meta Platforms Inc.’s (NASDAQ:META) Facebook, Snapchat, a unit of Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) and ByteDance-owned TikTok have collectively paid billions of dollars annually to the music industry through licensing agreements, the report noted.
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