Music Companies Sue Twitter Over Alleged Copyright Violations

A group of music publishers representing songwriters from Taylor Swift to Beyoncé is suing Twitter for alleged copyright infringement, arguing that the platform benefits from the use of songs it hasn’t paid for.

Twitter users regularly post videos that include popular music, and artists want to be paid when their work is used that way. The Elon Musk-owned company is one of the only social-media platforms that hasn’t forged licensing arrangements governing the use of music on its service. 

The suit, brought by the National Music Publishers’ Association on behalf of 17 music publishers, is the opening salvo in what could be a protracted legal battle between music’s biggest rights holders and the social-media platform. NMPA says it is seeking more than $250 million in damages for hundreds of thousands of alleged infringements that the organization has identified, spanning 1,700 songs.
 

Google’s YouTube, Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram, Snap and TikTok are among the platforms that pay artists when users post videos that include their songs.

“Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service,” said NMPA Chief Executive David Israelite. The artists represented by the suit span some of the biggest names in music including the Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, Miranda Lambert and Rihanna.

Twitter didn’t immediately comment.

The suit cites a 2021 letter from a then-Twitter policy executive to members of Congress that said the social-media company “unequivocally opposes copyright infringement and has invested in tools to assist rightsholders’ content protection efforts.”

The suit, filed Wednesday in the Middle District of Tennessee, alleges that prior to and after Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter last year, the service has engaged in, facilitated and profited from copyright infringement at the expense of music creators. 

NMPA says that Twitter has broadened its business model from a destination for short text-based messages to compete more aggressively with other social-media sites, becoming a destination now for multimedia content, “with music-infused videos being of particular and paramount importance.”

The platform “breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators,” the NMPA’s suit alleges.

Twitter doesn’t recognize the need for licensing agreements, and it is slow to remove infringing content at the request of rights holders, the suit alleges. Oftentimes the platform fails to take down videos rights holders have flagged, it alleges.

Twitter in the past has taken the position that it complied with federal copyright law and had processes in place to respond to take down claims regarding musical content by rights holders, according to former employees.

Licensing music to online platforms across social media, fitness and gaming has been a strategy for music rights holders seeking revenue growth beyond streaming on services like Spotify and Apple Music. 

NMPA in 2019 sued Peloton for copyright infringement, seeking more than $300 million in damages for more than 2,000 alleged violations. That case was settled early in 2020 with a new licensing agreement between the parties. 

Musk has a track record of not wanting to back down in legal disputes and demonstrating a willingness to go to trial, rather than settling. “We will never surrender/settle an unjust case against us, even if we will probably lose,” he tweeted in 2022 in reference to building a legal team at the electric automaker Tesla, where he is chief executive.  

The lawsuit is another challenge Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, faces in her early days at the helm of the social-media company. Yaccarino, who began as chief executive last week, is tasked with stabilizing Twitter’s advertising business. 

Write to Anne Steele at anne.steele@wsj.com and Alexa Corse at alexa.corse@wsj.com

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Appeared in the June 15, 2023, print edition as 'Suit Says Twitter Infringed Music Copyrights'.