Music publishers sue Twitter, slam Musk for calling DMCA a “plague on humanity”
Ars TechnicaJun 15, 2023
Music Publishers Sue Twitter for Copyright Infringement
The Facts
The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), a group of 17 US-based music publishers, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday at the Federal District Court in Nashville seeking $250M in damages from Twitter for allegedly permitting and encouraging copyright infringement for profit.
Citing CEO Elon Musk's tweets, the lawsuit argues that Musk’s regime has deliberately stopped enforcing copyright infringement rules since taking over the company last year while “breed[ing] massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”
The Spin
Narrative A
For far too long Twitter has circumvented copyright law in a way none of its competitors have been able to, exploiting the creative material of hundreds of artists. This problem has only gotten worse under Musk, who has shown a complete disregard for artists and their work. Musk’s attitude towards copyright law shows exactly how he is running Twitter, and he will have to face the consequences for doing nothing to stop copyright infringement.
Narrative B
It's highly telling that artists and record labels never seemed to care about Twitter not licensing music for over a decade, but the legal guns are out now that persona non grata Elon Musk is in charge of the company. Just like much of the hysteria surrounding Musk, this lawsuit is patently absurd, and the Twitter CEO is right in treating it as such.
Nerd narrative
There is an 87% chance that Elon Musk will remain the owner of Twitter by Jan. 1, 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
