\nTwitter is facing a $250 million lawsuit filed by major music publishers<\/br>
\n2023-06-15 21:59:14<\/br><\/p>\n
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\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nA music publisher\u2019s coalition that includes big names like Universal Music Corp., BMG, Warner Chapell, and Sony Music Publishing is suing<\/a> Twitter for copyright infringement.<\/p>\n The National Music Publishers\u2019 Association (NMPA), representing 17 publishers, listed 1,700 songs for which it sent multiple copyright violation notices to the social network. The lawsuit<\/a>, filed in Federal District Court in Nashville, says that Twitter didn\u2019t take any action against these notices. The publishers\u2019 organization said in the filing that it is seeking fines of up to $150,000 for each violation.<\/p>\n The lawsuit alleged that the social network \u201cfuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical \u2018compositions, violating Publishers\u2019 and others\u2019 exclusive rights under copyright law.\u201d It added that, unlike its competitors TikTok and Instagram, Twitter hasn\u2019t struck a music licensing deal for the use of copyrighted music.<\/p>\n In March, The New York Times reported that Elon Musk\u2019s management talks about signing a music licensing deal were stalled<\/a>. Musk has been in cost-cutting mode since taking over the company, and the NYT report cites that such agreements could cost $100 million a year for established platforms.<\/p>\n The plaintiffs said that Twitter has become a \u201chot destination\u201d for multimedia content with many users uploading videos with licensed music. The lawsuit also mentioned that Musk has allowed paid users to upload two-hour-long videos<\/a>. There have been plenty<\/a> of<\/a> instances<\/a> where users have uploaded full copyrighted movies on the platform. Additionally, the document refers to Twitter\u2019s own marketing material describing the benefits of videos in terms of higher engagement.<\/p>\n The lawsuit also quoted a Musk tweet from last year where he refers to DMCA as a \u201cplague on humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n Overzealous DMCA is a plague on humanity<\/p>\n \u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTwitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service,\u201d David Israelite, the president of the National Music Publishers\u2019 Association, a trade group, said in a statement given to LA Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTwitter knows full well that music is leaked, launched, and streamed by billions of people every day on its platform. No longer can it hide behind the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] and refuse to pay songwriters and music publishers.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, when Musk announced NBCU\u2019s Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO<\/a>, Israelite tweeted that the first order of business for the new CEO should be to address the problem of unlicensed music on the platform.<\/p>\n @elonmusk<\/a> just announced that a new Twitter CEO will be starting in 6 weeks. First order of business \u2013 address the massive amount of unlicensed music on the platform. Songs have value.<\/p>\n \u2014 David Israelite (@DavidIsraelite) May 11, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n\n
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