Twitter does a TikTok, gets sued by music labels over copyrighted songs

A collection of 17 music publishers filed a lawsuit against Twitter in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee. The lawsuit claims that Twitter is not only failing to enforce laws on copyright violations, but also enabling numerous copyright violations by allowing users to post music without obtaining a license. According to the lawsuit, Twitter is driving user engagement through the proliferation of unauthorized copies of musical compositions.

The National Music Publishers’ Association, including Sony Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, and Universal Music Publishing Group, is part of the lawsuit. They are seeking damages exceeding $250 million for the alleged infringement of approximately 1,700 copyrights.

Twitter joins other social media platforms that got sued
The lawsuit alleges that the infringement issue has worsened since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October. Furthermore, it asserts that other major platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube properly license music from the publishers.

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According to NMPA President David Israelite, Twitter is unique among social media platforms for refusing to license the millions of songs available on its service.

The lawsuit claims that Twitter consistently ignores repeated instances of infringement by users who post tweets containing unlicensed music. The publishers argue that Twitter actively encourages infringement, leading to increased engagement and advertising revenue. This, in turn, gives Twitter an unfair advantage over platforms that pay for music licenses.

The publishers pointed out that Twitter’s internal operations related to the issues relevant to this case are in a state of disarray. They highlighted significant reductions in the company’s legal and trust-and-safety teams since Elon Musk assumed control.

Also read: Twitter sued by the Royal Crown in England over non-payment of rent for their London office

TikTok and similar apps have a history of run-ins with the music industry
As we said, Twitter isn’t the first social media company to face the music and get sued by music labels. ByteDance-owned TikTok was also surrounded by controversy, after music labels started suing TikTok’s star creators and brands advertising on the platform, for using music from the catalogues of various labels, without paying any heed to copyright laws.

The music industry’s strict enforcement of copyright against companies that use unlicensed songs in social media posts serves as a cautionary message for businesses seeking to leverage the rapid growth of platforms like TikTok, Twitter and other short-form video-sharing platforms.

Also read: T-Series issues legal notices to video sharing platforms like Roposo, MX Player’s Takatak for copyright violation

In one example, Bang, an emerging energy drink manufacturer based out of the US, achieved remarkable marketing success by employing a bold and captivating social media strategy that involved popular influencers promoting its beverages on TikTok and Instagram Reels.

However, the company failed to acquire licenses for the music used in over 100 of its videos, resulting in copyright infringement lawsuits filed by all three major US record labels. In two of these cases, a federal judge ruled in favour of the labels.

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