Twitter sued in US for music copyright infringement

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) sued for more than $250 million in damages.

NMPA is the premier advocacy group for songwriters in the United States and has several major music companies as members, including Sony Music and Universal Music Group (UMG). The union filed a complaint in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee. Music companies have said that Twitter has infringed on the music rights of about 1,700 songs. NMPA seeks up to $150,000 for each infringing combination.

‘Unlawful Conduct’

In the complaint, the association says Twitter is “engaged in copyright infringement” and that “the illegal conduct enriches Twitter at the expense of publishers and their songwriters.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter last year for $44 billion. According to The New York Times, Twitter was in talks with music companies about licensing deals before the acquisition.

Billions of dollars

Other social media companies, such as YouTube, Facebook, Snap and TikTok, have deals that pay the music industry billions of dollars annually for music rights. YouTube, owned by Google parent Alphabet, said it paid $6 billion for the music industry in the past 12 months, while Facebook owner Meta Platforms paid hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the rights to allow customers to use music in their videos. .