Music publishers file lawsuit against Twitter for alleged copyright infringement

The National Music Publishers’ Association has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s Twitter for allegedly violating the copyright of songwriters.

Across nearly all social media platforms, using a snippet of copyrighted songs or videos could lead to your post — or even your entire account — being removed.

Apps like YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat have agreements with copyright holders that have the companies paying millions of dollars each per year.

According to a report from Bloomberg Law, however, Twitter does not have an agreement and now the National Music Publishers’ Association is seeing damages for 1,700 songs.

NMPA/Unsplash: marcelalaskoski

NMPA files lawsuit against Twitter for alleged copyright

The report states that the NMPA filed the complaint in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee on behalf of 17 music publishers including Sony Music, and Universal Music Publishing Group.

The 17 music publishers are seeking up to $150,000 for every song infringed as well as other damages, although they didn’t specify what those other damages would include.

“The Twitter platform, which Elon Musk purchased in 2022 for $44 billion, is rife with copyright infringement,” the group said.

The New York Times revealed back in March that Twitter’s attempt to get licensing deals from various publishers fell flat due to costs.

Twitch is another platform that’s had issues with copyright over the last few years, though the Amazon-owned site signed an agreement with the NMPA in September 2021.

Twitter has yet to make a comment about the lawsuit at the time of writing, but we’ll be sure to update you if they do.

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