Twitter has been sued by the National Music Publisher’s Association (NMPA) after accusations were brought forward of it allegedly violating the copyright of songwriters by using their music on the platform without permission.
Twitter is one of the only major social platforms not paying music rights to holders for licenses to their work. YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook all have agreements and pay the music industry billions of dollars a year.
The NMPA are seeking a court declaration stating Twitter willfully infringed approximately 1,700 songs.
The complaint was filed in a Nashville federal court on behalf of 17 music publishers. These include, Sony Music, and Universal Music Publishing Group.
These companies are seeking up to $150,000 for every piece of infringed work, while the association is seeking damages of over $250 million.
The group has said, “The Twitter platform, which Elon Musk purchased in 2022 for $44 billion, is rife with copyright infringement.”
They added Twitter’s “unlawful conduct enriches Twitter at publishers’ and their songwriters’ expense.”
Twitter was in talks with music companies about signing licensing deals before Elon Musk took control.
Since, he has been preoccupied with other matters, including firing most of the staff, hiring a new chief executive officer, and reassuring advertisers that have stopped working with the company.
