Music industry slams Twitter with $250 million lawsuit over copyright infringement

The music industry is accusing Twitter of violating copyright law in a new lawsuit that seeks over $250 million in damages.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a Tennessee court, says Twitter under Elon Musk has been illegally sharing music and video without a license.

The National Music Publishers’ Association alleges that Twitter’s illegal promotion of its music is unfair to the social media platform’s competitors.

“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,” the complaint from the association said.

The NMPA is composed of many industry giants, including Warner Music, Sony and Universal.

The companies allege that since Mr. Musk fired a significant number of staff members focused on limiting copyright infringement on the site, the problem has been exacerbated.

The lawsuit also points to Mr. Musk’s own position on copyright law. The lawsuit features two screenshots of tweets from Mr. Musk that reflect his disdain for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

“Current copyright law in general goes absurdly far beyond protecting the original creator,” he wrote.

Twitter could not be reached for comment.