Music publishers sue Twitter, slam Musk for calling DMCA a “plague on humanity”

Twitter was sued yesterday by music publishers who are seeking about $250 million in damages for alleged copyright violations. Members of the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) trade group say that Twitter does little to stop copyright infringement and doesn't pay for music rights like other social media companies do.

"Twitter knows perfectly well that neither it nor users of the Twitter platform have secured licenses for the rampant use of music being made on its platform as complained of herein," said the complaint filed against X Corp. (aka Twitter) in US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. "Nonetheless, in connection with its highly interactive platform, Twitter consistently and knowingly hosts and streams infringing copies of musical compositions... Twitter also routinely continues to provide specific known repeat infringers with use of the Twitter platform, which they use for more infringement."

Unlike Twitter, social media firms "TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat have entered into agreements with Publishers and other rights holders that compensate creators of musical compositions for use of their works on those platforms," the lawsuit said. The plaintiffs asked for up to $150,000 in statutory damages for each infringed work and provided a list of about 1,700 infringed works. That adds up to about $250 million, but the court exhibit said the list of songs is a "non-exhaustive, illustrative list of works infringed by Twitter." This list "will be amended as the case proceeds," the lawsuit said.