Music Publishers Sue Twitter for Copyright Infringement

Facts

• The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), a group of 17 US-based music publishers, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday at the Federal District Court in Nashville seeking $250M in damages from Twitter for allegedly permitting and encouraging copyright infringement for profit.¹
• Citing CEO Elon Musk's tweets, the lawsuit argues that Musk’s regime has deliberately stopped enforcing copyright infringement rules since taking over the company last year while “breed[ing] massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”²
• While other social media companies like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat pay for a blanket license that allows users to upload copyrighted material, Twitter has never done so. Talks to pay $100M for licensing stalled over the price and have fallen apart since Musk’s takeover.³
• Alleging the infringement of approximately 1.7k songs, the lawsuit states that Twitter should pay $150K for each infringement. The NMPA includes some of the world’s largest labels and artists, including Drake, Rihanna, and Taylor Swift, among others.⁴
• The lawsuit noted Musk’s tweets including one where he advised a user who was warned about a potential suspension for copyright notices to "consider turning on subscriptions” in order to conceal infringement. Musk has also said the “overzealous DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] is a plague on humanity.”⁵
• The suit also highlighted Twitter’s massive layoffs since Musk took over, alleging that he eliminated whole teams and exerted pressure on employees on issues involving copyright.²

Sources: ¹FT, ²CNN, ³Guardian, ⁴Washington Examiner, and ⁵Verge.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Ars Technica. For far too long Twitter has circumvented copyright law in a way none of its competitors have been able to, exploiting the creative material of hundreds of artists. This problem has only gotten worse under Musk, who has shown a complete disregard for artists and their work. Musk’s attitude towards copyright law shows exactly how he is running Twitter, and he will have to face the consequences for doing nothing to stop copyright infringement.
• Narrative B, as provided by OutKick. It's highly telling that artists and record labels never seemed to care about Twitter not licensing music for over a decade, but the legal guns are out now that persona non grata Elon Musk is in charge of the company. Just like much of the hysteria surrounding Musk, this lawsuit is patently absurd, and the Twitter CEO is right in treating it as such.

Predictions