On Wednesday, June 14, music publishers sued Twitter for more than $250 million in damages, claiming that the social media platform “breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”
The National Music Publishers’ Association, whose members include Universal, Sony, and Warner Music Group, claims in the lawsuit that Twitter has allowed users to upload copyrighted songs without a license for years. It also says that Twitter’s misbehavior has worsened since Elon Musk purchased the firm for $44 billion last year and reduced workers.
According to the National Music Publishers’ Association, Twitter’s claimed permissiveness regarding users posting copyrighted tunes, combined with the social network’s promotion of tweets including copyrighted music, has illegally aided the company’s growth.
The complaint lists over 1,700 songs whose copyright Twitter is accused of violating, including hits like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” which features Bruno Mars.
“The availability of videos with music, including copies of Publishers’ musical compositions, furthers Twitter’s financial interests both because it drives user engagement, and thus advertising revenue, and because Twitter does not pay fees to license musical compositions,” according to the complaint. “By offering free, unlicensed music, Twitter gains an unfair advantage over competitors such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and others.”
According to the music publishers, Twitter’s competitors all pay license fees to rightsholders for the permission to utilize copyrighted music.
The lawsuit highlights substantial layoffs at Twitter under Musk’s ownership, which have resulted in the elimination of entire teams. It also exposes Musk’s own views on copyright, providing a snapshot of two of his past tweets.
“Current copyright law generally goes absurdly far beyond protecting the original creator,” Musk said at the time. In a subsequent tweet, he said of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, “Overzealous DMCA is a plague on humanity.”
According to the complaint, these statements “exert pressure on Twitter employees, including those in its trust and safety team, on issues relating to copyright and infringement.”
