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Several major music publishers have launched a collective lawsuit against Twitter to the tune of $250M USD.<\/p>\n
What’s going on:\u00a0<\/strong> In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, members of the National Music Publishers\u2019 Association (NMPA) trade group, allege that the social media giant recently purchased by Elon Musk does not take appropriate steps to stop copyright infringement \u2014 what the complaint calls \u201cwillful copyright infringement\u201d \u2014 nor does it pay to license music rights the way Facebook, Instagram and other platforms do.<\/p>\n Digging deeper:<\/strong> In the complaint<\/a>\u00a0filed by Concord, Universal, Sony, EMI and a total of 17 industry giants in the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, the plaintiffs write:<\/p>\n \u201cTwitter knows perfectly well that neither it nor users of the Twitter platform have secured licenses for the rampant use of music being made on its platform as complained of herein. Nonetheless, in connection with its highly interactive platform, Twitter consistently and knowingly hosts and streams infringing copies of musical compositions. [\u2026] Twitter also routinely continues to provide specific known repeat infringers with use of the Twitter platform, which they use for more infringement.\u201d<\/p>\n The complaint further alleges that the level of copyright infringement is \u201cno accident\u201d, and notes that \u201cTwitter profits handsomely\u201d from its practices.<\/p>\n Why it matters:<\/strong> Twitter is alone among the major social media platforms in its stance. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Snapchat have all entered into agreements with music publishers and other rights holders\u2019 organizations so that the creators of music used on those platforms are compensated.<\/p>\n In their documentation, the plaintiffs catalogue close to 1,700 infringed works on Twitter and ask for up to $150,000 USD statutory damages for each of the infringed works. The list, however, is only meant to be an illustration of the problem and not an exhaustive one. The plan is to update the list on an ongoing basis as the case proceeds, so presumably, the requested damages will go up as well.<\/p>\n