If you thought you could liberate music content on Twitter, know you were wrong – at least if that content isn’t yours. However, rights holders are not willing to let it go so easily, as a recent complaint against the social network shows. On Wednesday, June 14, 17 record labels came together to accuse the platform of copyright infringement.
More than 1,700 songs are affected, according to the complaint. “Twitter is the only social network that refuses to license the millions of songs available on its service”David Israelite, president of the National Association of Music Publishers, cited TikTok and Instagram, which allow free use of music excerpts in their posts.
Twitter faces record fine for copyright infringement
With this lawsuit, record companies are demanding a total of 250 million dollars, 150 thousand dollars per unauthorized song.230 million euros). The latter, in particular, recalls singer Rihanna’s Umbrella caption, which was the subject of a tweet that garnered 221,000 views and more than 15,000 likes. According to the lawsuit, around 300,000 copyright-infringing tweets have been sent since December 2021, and Twitter has made no attempt to stop it.
This date is not given randomly as it coincides with the end of negotiations between Twitter and rights holders for the license agreement for the use of music excerpts. Such a license would cost the social network $100 million per year. But since Elon Musk came to power, the latter has only one motto: save money. He is at risk of receiving one of the heaviest sentences in his history, following a 140m-euro fine in 2022.
Source : New York Times
