Twitter sued for US$250 million on music copyright infringement

Member companies of the National Music Publishers' Association in Nashville, Tennessee have filed a lawsuit against Twitter and are seeking over US$250 million in damages for the alleged copyright infringement of about 1,700 works, according to the lawsuit as seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. 

The music publishers include Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Big Machine Music to name a few.

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“Twitter profits handsomely from its infringement of publishers’ repertoires of musical compositions,” the lawsuit stated.

“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, the lawsuit continued.

Twitter is being sued for counts of direct copyright infringement, contributory infringement and vicarious infringement.

There is a vibrant existing market for social media companies to pay fees for the use of musical compositions, the lawsuit stated. Other social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have agreements with publishers that compensate creators of musical compositions for use of their works on those platforms.

There are also "dynamic" existing markets for individuals to receive streams and downloads of music, including recordings embodying publishers’ musical compositions, outside the context of social media. "Twitter’s conduct complained of herein harms these legitimate markets, thereby depriving publishers and their songwriters of hard-earned, deserved income from their creative endeavors," it said. 

"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," read the lawsuit. "Twitter has rebuffed calls for it to obtain the licenses or other agreements needed for musical compositions to be lawfully used on its platform. Accordingly, Publishers have no choice but to file this lawsuit to stop Twitter’s ongoing infringement of Publishers’ rights and remedy the significant harm Twitter has caused, which will continue if left unremedied.

The news comes shortly after GroupM, one of the world's top media agencies, let its clients know last month that it no longer considers Twitter to be high risk after Elon Musk announced recently that he had appointed Linda Yaccarino as the platform's new CEO, according to a report by The Financial Times. 

The news comes months after GroupM declared that Twitter was high risk in November as the platform, under Musk's leadership, saw massive changes and instability. GroupM's announcement comes at an opportune time as Twitter attempts to bring back advertisers who were abandoning the platform, costing the app 50 per cent of its yearly revenue, according to The Financial Times. 

Media reports were citing people familiar with the matter who noted that the agency was likely to begin encouraging its clients to increase ad spend once again on Twitter. 

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