Universal, Sony and more sue Twitter for $250million following alleged copyright infringement

nme.com:

Twitter following alleged copyright infringement.The suit was filed in Nashville’s Federal Court yesterday (June 14) and claims that the social media platform has infringed on over 1,700 different songs.It also seeks up to $150,000 (£118,630) per infringement — which totals up to $255million (£180million) to be paid if Twitter is found liable.Some of the biggest music publishing companies are included among the plaintiffs listed including Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, Universal Music Publishing, BMG and Kobalt.The publishers listed direct copyright infringement, contributory infringement and vicarious infringement as their counts.David Israelite, the president of NMPA issued a statement regarding the suit, stating: “Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service.”He continued: “Twitter knows full well that music is leaked, launched, and streamed by billions of people every day on its platform.

No longer can it hide behind the DMCA and refuse to pay songwriters and music publishers.”Twitter has not yet issued a response regarding the allegations.The inability of the social media giant and music publishers to reach a licensing agreement stems back numerous years and, at time of writing, Twitter is the only major social media company to be working without one.As per the suit, the plaintiffs stated that they hoped new ownership of the company would help them resolve the ongoing issue.