Twitter may be in deep trouble yet again.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the National Music Publishers Association filed a federal lawsuit on the behalf of 17 music publishers, including the three majors, Warner, Universal, and Sony. Official documents accuse the company of copyright infringement due to the app's lack of licensing and paying for music featured on its platform.
The NMPA is suing Twitter for up to $250 million over "roughly 1,700 works for which it received hundreds of thousands of takedown notices," THR writes.
The court filing reads, "Twitter fuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical compositions, violating Publishers’ and others’ exclusive rights under copyright law."
The complaint then alleges that Elon Musk's company hasn't "secured licenses for the rampant use of music being made on its platform," and that it hosts and streams "infringing copies of musical compositions, including ones uploaded by or streamed to Tennessee residents." (The suit was filed in a Tennessee federal court.)
It continues, “Twitter’s unlawful conduct has caused and continues to cause substantial and irreparable harm to Publishers, their songwriter clients, and the entire music ecosystem. Twitter’s unlawful conduct enriches Twitter at Publishers’ and their songwriters’ expense and to the detriment of their copyrighted musical compositions.”
In 2021, the National Music Publishers Association notified Twitter that more than 300,000 tweets violated copyright, stating that the platform "often waited weeks, a month, or even longer” to remove posts, if at all.
The news comes just after Elon Musk stepped down as active CEO to oversee product and software design.
