Twitter sues music publishers for $250 million over ‘massive’ copyright infringement

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) is suing Twitter on behalf of 17 music publishers representing the industry’s biggest artists. the lawsuitfiled in a Tennessee federal court, alleges that the company “fuels its business with countless infringing copies of music tracks, violating the exclusive rights of the publishers and others under copyright law.”

She also has List of 1,700 songs or so (Included below) The publishers say it was included in multiple Twitter copyright notices without the company doing anything about it, and they are asking the court to fine Twitter up to $150,000 for each violation.

This release precedes Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter last year. the The New York Times He cites unnamed employees as saying Twitter struck a music licensing deal because of its cost, which it said could amount to more than $100 million a year – times Also reported in March That licensing deals between three major brands and Twitter stalled after Musk’s acquisition last fall.

Of course, Musk’s tweets — and an enhanced Twitter Blue package with the ability to upload longer videos — appeared in the suit as well. The flood of movies uploaded to Twitter in the past few months, such as Copied, did not mention Super Mario Bros movie And Avatar: Water Road which lasted for hours before being lowered. Instead, he cites some of Musk’s tweets as examples.

One user complained that his account could be suspended after five copyright notices, which Musk said he was “looking into,” and advised They should “consider turning on subscriptions,” which the suit says encouraged them to pay Twitter to hide the offending material so it wouldn’t be reported. in Another tweetElon Musk said that “the DMCA is a plague on humanity.” He was not included in the lawsuit, but in March, Musk was, too chirp that “accounts that engage in repeated and flagrant weaponization of DMCA on Twitter or encourage weaponization of DMCA on Twitter will receive temporary suspension” while claiming that “reasonable media takedown requests are, of course, appropriate and will always be supported.”

Most of the alleged infringement reported to Twitter is due to music videos, videos of live music performances, or other videos synced to copyrighted music, and Twitter is accused of using those videos to enhance their value by increasing the amount of time people spend on its site. . The NMPA claims that Twitter failed to remove the offending content once notified and “continue to assist known repeat offenders” without risking losing their accounts.

After Musk announced that a new Twitter CEO would be chosen soon, Musk’s NMPA chief David Israelite tweeted that his first order of business should be to “handle the massive amount of unlicensed music on the platform,” after Similar tweet last spring.

Twitter did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit, and since it was filed, Musk has tweeted about Tucker Carlson and crime in San Francisco, while new CEO Linda Iaccarino has not tweeted since posting the content of her first letter to the company. employees.