Twitter to be sued for $250 Million in alleged copyright infringement

Universal Music Publishing, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell – along with other prominent publishers including BMG, Wixen, Hipgnosis and Kobalt – are among those attempting to sue Twitter. The companies seek as much as $150,000 per infringement, totalling $255 million over the allegations if Twitter is found liable.

“Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service,” NMPA president David Israelite said in a statement. “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."

Twitter is the only major social media company without a music licensing agreement, after many years of disagreement between the record companies. The suit said plaintiffs had hoped that Elon Musk – who recently reclaimed the title of the world's richest person, bought Twitter last year for $44bn – taking over the company could help finally end any outstanding disagreements, but so far that hasn't happened.

“Twitter’s change in ownership in October 2022 has not led to improvements in how it acts with respect to copyright,” the plaintiffs said in the suit. “On the contrary, Twitter’s internal affairs regarding matters pertinent to this case are in disarray.” Further looking to bring the company’s care about infringement into question, the suit also referenced a May 2022 tweet from Musk in which he called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act — a legal statute copyright holders cite in takedown requests — as “a plague on humanity.”