Twitter Sued For Copyright Infringement
The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has officially declared war on Twitter and it’s “rampant infringement of copyrighted music”. The NMPA, composed of 17 different groups, including Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, and Universal Music Publishing Company, announced a lawsuit seeking $250 million in damages for the slew of rights infringements that’ve occurred on the social media platform. Back in 2021, 20+ members of Congress signed a letter to then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, imploring him to set up the necessary technology to help curb this exact problem.
Unlike other major social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, Twitter does not have a licensing deal in place with any of the major music companies. “Twitter knows full well that music is leaked, launched, and streamed by billions of people every day on its platform. No longer can it hide behind the DMCA and refuse to pay songwriters and music publishers,” said CEO of the NMPA David Israelite.
Twitter’s problems just won’t seem to end. Back in March, I wrote about how Twitter had plans for licensing deals but as soon as Elon stepped in, those plans fell through. Licensing of creative assets isn’t something that should be falling through the cracks at that level and intellectual property rights is only going to become more of a high-octane fight. Twitter made it’s bed, now it has to lay in it.
SOURCES