Three big music corporations, Universal, Sony, and Warner, have jointly sued Twitter for $250 million for alleged infringement of their music. This case involves approximately 1700 works for which the social media network got hundreds of takedown requests yet did nothing. Twitter is accused of widespread copyright infringement in the case. (https://cashcofinancial.com/)
According to lawsuit, Twitter is profiting from someone else’s music
Twitter, according to the trio, “fuels its business” by “consistently and knowingly hosting and streaming infringing copies of music compositions.” According to the lawsuit, Twitter has never attempted to get the necessary permissions for running its music.
Twitter is now the only major social media platform that lacks music license agreements. As a result, websites can lawfully host films and other content that includes music from publishers. Meanwhile, other sites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat have entered into agreements with composers of musical compositions to compensate them for the usage of their work.
Twitter’s case was filed in a court in Tennessee, United States. According to the lawsuit, “The availability of videos with music, including copies of Publishers’ musical compositions, furthers Twitter’s financial interests both because it drives user engagement, and thus advertising revenue, and because Twitter does not pay fees to license musical compositions from Publishers and other music rights holders. Indeed, providing free, unlicensed music gives the Twitter platform an unfair advantage over competing platforms.”
Twitter does not sanction serial infringers
The complaint cites examples of persistent offenders who have been served notifications of infringement on multiple occasions but have done nothing because the host platform does not levy any penalties. “Twitter then monetizes those tweets and users via advertising, subscriptions, and data licensing, all of which serve to increase Twitter’s valuation and revenues,” states the filing.
Twitter failed to create a policy to dismiss repeat infringers, according to the publishers. The suit claims, “Users who repeatedly infringe copyrights do not face a realistic prospect of permanently losing access to their accounts on the Twitter platform. Rather than terminating access to specific users brought to its attention as infringers, which would have stopped or limited their infringement and deterred others from infringing, Twitter has operated its platform to be a haven for infringing activity.”
Music labels are requesting $150,000 for each infringed work
The complaint seeks $150,000 for each work infringed. It alleges direct and contributory infringement, as well as vicarious infringement. The National Music Publishers Association represents the 17 publishers who filed the lawsuit. Anthem Entertainment, Big Machine Music, BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing America, and Spirit Music Group are just a few of them.
