Twitter Faces Lawsuit for Copyright Infringement, Music Labels Seek Up to $150,000

Twitter is facing a lawsuit for allegedly violating the copyright of songwriters by using their music on the platform without permission for approximately 1,700 songs. Music labels are seeking up to $150,000 for every piece of work infringed.

Facing Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

The National Music Publishers' Association filed a lawsuit against Twitter, accusing the company of violating the copyrights of songwriters. According to a report from Reuters, Twitter used 1,700 songs on its platform without permission, making the company the only major social media platform that does not pay music rights to holders for licenses to their work.

The organization is seeking a court declaration that Twitter admittedly infringed on the songs and seeking up to $150,000 for every song. Overall, it is seeking damages of more than $250 million. This was filed in federal court in Nashville consisting of 17 music publishers, including Sony Music and Universal Music Publishing Group.

NMPA President David Israelite stated that Twitter has completely refused to license millions of songs on its service despite being the largest social media platform. Twitter was accused by the companies for doing "unlawful conduct enriches them at publishers' and their songwriters' expense."

As per the lawsuit, deep cuts to the company's legal and trust-and-safety have gotten worst since Musk took control last October. Through this manner, Deadline reported that Twitter encourages user infringement which increases engagement and ad revenues while giving an unfair advantage over companies that pay for music licenses.

Other Companies' Compliance

Music companies have long complained that platforms on the internet have gotten so much money for using their work. In comparison to Twitter, Bloomberg reported that YouTube, Facebook, Snap, and Tiktok have all agreements that collectively play the industry billions of dollars annually.

After years of fighting with other social media platforms over the fair use of their work, music labels have settled with other big companies related to what Twitter is facing right now. For instance, Alphabet's YouTube paid $6 billion to the music industry in the previous 12 months.

Meanwhile, Meta paid hundreds of millions of dollars every year for music rights, allowing users of their platforms like Facebook and Instagram to use music in their reels and videos. For YouTube, licensing music was a bigger priority as they offer full-length songs.

While Facebook and TikTok host also a lot of videos set to music, Twitter has long been built around text which may be the main reason why they are not complying with the music companies. Aside from this, Musk has been also preoccupied with other matters since he acquired the company.

Twitter has been facing a lot of setbacks like mass layoffs, gaining reassurance from their advertisers who recently stopped working with the company, and hiring a new chief executive officer as Musk's replacement.