Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Twitter Over Music Use

Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Twitter Over Music Use

Suisa Digital Licensing, a European music licensing organization, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Twitter International, owner of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), on Wednesday. The suit alleges that Twitter failed to pay music authors and publishers whose works are used on the platform.

This Liechtenstein-based organisation manages a massive library of approximately 10 million musical works, representing the creations of tens of thousands of songwriters, composers, and publishers.

Suisa Digital alleges that a considerable portion of the musical works used in videos on X, acquired by Elon Musk for $44 billion last year, belong to their repertoire.

In a statement, Suisa Digital accused Twitter International of using unlicensed music represented by them on the X platform. They clarified that this lawsuit comes after repeated attempts to reach licensing agreements with X proved unsuccessful.

"Suisa Digital is using all of the resources at its disposal to defend the interests of authors and publishers it represents and is taking resolute action against the illegal use of music," organisation chief Fabien Niggemeier said.

Suisa Digital is owned by Suisa, a non-profit organisation representing songwriters and music publishers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Suisa Digital Licensing claims an inability to quantify the compensation owed due to a lack of access to Twitter's platform usage data. Consequently, they demand the complete disclosure of figures related to music usage and the resulting revenue generated on the platform.

A comparable lawsuit filed in the United States last June by major music publishers against Twitter sought a potential compensation of $150,000 per instance of copyright infringement, with the potential damages totalling hundreds of millions of dollars.

The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) and its members filed a lawsuit against Twitter, alleging that allowing unlicensed music on the platform creates an unfair competitive advantage over rivals such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, who pay licensing fees to music publishers.