Twitter faces $250 million lawsuit for ‘wilful’ music copyright infringement

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has filed a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter in the US for extensive copyright infringement.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of 17 music publishers, accuses Twitter of “wilful copyright infringement” and seeks damages and injunctive relief.

According to the lawsuit, “Twitter fuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical compositions, violating publishers’ and others’ exclusive rights under copyright law.”

The lawsuit also highlights “While numerous Twitter competitors recognise the need for proper licenses and agreements for the use of musical compositions on their platforms, Twitter does not, and instead breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”

The lawsuit presents a catalog of approximately 1,700 songs that have been identified in multiple copyright notices sent to Twitter. It requests the court to impose fines of up to $150,000 for each violation committed by the micro-blogging platform.

According to the lawsuit, the “pervasive infringing activity” addressed in this case is not a mere coincidence.

It asserts that Twitter intentionally expanded its business model beyond its initial purpose of short text-based messages to compete more aggressively with other social media platforms, striving to attract users, advertisers, and subscribers.

The lawsuit states, “By design, the Twitter platform became a hot destination for multimedia content, with music-infused videos being of particular and paramount importance.”

According to the NMPA, Twitter has been accused of neglecting to take down infringing content despite being notified and has allegedly provided assistance to repeat infringers without facing any consequences, including the potential loss of their accounts.

Neither Twitter nor Musk had responded to the lawsuit at the time of reporting.

The lawsuit claims, “Twitter profits handsomely from its infringement of Publishers’ repertoires of musical compositions. The audio and audio-visual recordings embodying those compositions attract and retain users (both account holders and visitors) and drive engagement, thereby furthering Twitter’s lucrative advertising business and other revenue streams.“