Twitter sued for $250 million over music copyright infringement

Plaintiffs say Twitter's infractions have only worsened since Elon Musk's takeover. Credit: DADO RUVIC/REUTERS

Elon Musk's Twitter is being sued for $250m (£198m) by music publishers for hundreds of alleged copyright infringements.

In the lawsuits filed in the US, 17 music publishers, including Sony and Universal Music, said Twitter is “fueling its business with countless copyright infringing copies. The music industry's spat with Twitter preceded Mr. Musk's $44 billion takeover, although the publishers say the social network has been in «a mess» since the deal was struck.

The defendant in the lawsuits is Musk's X Corp, which owns Twitter.

Unlike some of its biggest social media competitors, including Facebook and TikTok, Twitter has never signed a rights treaty. with the music industry. In 2021, he began talks with three major labels, but discussions stalled soon after.

Facebook has signed a number of agreements with music groups since 2018 that have granted their users the rights to upload music videos and songs. YouTube, Snap and TikTok have licensing agreements with publishers.

The court documents claim that publishers have uncovered about 1,700 alleged musical infringements, including songs by Rihanna and Billie Eilish. The publishers are seeking $150,000 for each infringing work.

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), which filed the lawsuit, said pirated music is profiting Twitter because the site promotes ads in tweets next to uploaded music. music videos.

The legal complaint added that the violations on Twitter «only got worse» after Mr. Musk came to power. Following the deal, the billionaire fired thousands of Twitter employees. «Twitter's internal affairs with respect to matters relevant to this case are in disarray,» the bands said in court documents.

The lawsuit also cites Mr. Musk's tweets in which he previously claimed that «copyright law in general goes absurdly far.»

However, after the takeover of Twitter, Mr. Musk also warned that «reasonable media takedown requests.»

David Israelite, chief executive of the NMPA, said: «Twitter stands apart as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license millions of songs on its service.»

He added: «Twitter is great knows that billions of people are leaked, launched and streamed daily on its platform.”

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.