A group of the US music publishers sued Twitter. They claim that the platform allowed the copyright infringement of nearly 1 700 songs.
The BBC writes about it.
The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) is seeking more than $250 million in damages. In a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Nashville, the NMPA alleges that Twitter "permits and encourages infringement" in order to make a profit.
It also says that the situation has not improved since Elon Musk bought the company.
NMPA, which represents a number of companies including Sony Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management and Universal Music Publishing Group, said Twitter continues to "make huge profits from making available unlicensed music without paying the necessary licensing fees for it." According to representatives of the association, such violations gave Twitter an "unfair advantage" over competitors (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat) that pay for music licenses.
"Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform to completely refuse to license millions of songs on its service," NMPA President David Israelite noted.
NMPA emphasizes that Twitterʼs change of ownership in October 2022 did not lead to an improvement in copyright policy.
"On the contrary, Twitterʼs internal affairs are in chaos regarding the issues surrounding this case," the organization added.
- Ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter Inc., the company began to regularly ignore payments for renting premises and providing other services. The Wall Street Journal reported that landlords, consultants and vendors filed complaints for more than $14 million plus interest. At least nine trials are involved.
- In January 2023, the company put hundreds of items from its San Francisco headquarters up for online auction.
- In April, former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and two other top executives began suing the media company after it failed to reimburse them for more than a million dollars in personal legal expenses.