Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Twitter
Elon Musk broke Twitter and is seriously paying for it.
Purchasing the social media platform is becoming an expensive mistake for Elon Musk.
The social media app has lost 66% of its value since Musk was forced to pony up $44 billion to buy the company in October last year, and now he might have to go into his personal bank account to pay a lawsuit.
Spotted on Variety, Elon Musk was hit a federal copyright infringement $250 million lawsuit by the National Music Publishers Assn, which reps 17 major music publishers for the company’s failure to license and pay for the music on the platform.
According to the website, the plaintiffs in the suit include Concord, UMPG, peermusic, ABKCO Music, Anthem Entertainment, Big Machine Music, BMG Rights Management, Hipgnosis Songs Group, Kobalt Music Publishing America, Mayimba Music, Reservoir Media Management, Sony Music Publishing, Spirit Music Group, The Royalty Network, Ultra Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, and Wixen Music Publishing.
Per Variety, the lawsuit reads:
The complaint seeks more than $250 million in damages for hundreds of thousands of noticed infringements of approximately 1,700 works.
“Twitter fuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical compositions, violating Publishers’ and others’ exclusive rights under copyright law,” the complaint reads in part. “While numerous Twitter competitors recognize the need for proper licenses and agreements for the use of musical compositions on their platforms, Twitter does not, and instead breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators…
“Twitter knows perfectly well that neither it nor users of the Twitter platform have secured licenses for the rampant use of music being made on its platform as complained of herein,” it continues. “Nonetheless, in connection with its highly interactive platform, Twitter consistently and knowingly hosts and streams infringing copies of musical compositions, including ones uploaded by or streamed to Tennessee residents and including specific infringing material that Twitter knows is infringing. Twitter also routinely continues to provide specific known repeat infringers with use of the Twitter platform, which they use for more infringement. Twitter profits handsomely from its infringement of Publishers’ repertoires of musical compositions. …
“Twitter’s unlawful conduct has caused and continues to cause substantial and irreparable harm to Publishers, their songwriter clients, and the entire music ecosystem. Twitter’s unlawful conduct enriches Twitter at Publishers’ and their songwriters’ expense and to the detriment of their copyrighted musical compositions. Twitter has rebuffed calls for it to obtain the licenses or other agreements needed for musical compositions to be lawfully used on its platform.”
Twitter Is Now A Broken Mess
On top of that, the company has become a mere shell of what it used to be, with the social media platform becoming a bot-filled, buggy experience that seems to crash every other week, as Presidential hopeful and “Grand Wizard” Ron DeSantis learned when he tried to launch his campaign during a circle jerk disguised as a Twitter space.
That could also be a direct result of the massive rounds of layoffs at the company following Musk buying the company.
Musk is no longer CEO handing over the role to Linda Yaccarino, taking on the role of executive chairman and chief technology officer, where he will “oversee product.”
Twitter is not the only company to feel the NMPA’s wrath. Roblox, TikTok, Pelaton, Twitch, and many others were hit with similar suits but eventually settled or did find a way to reach an agreement.
We expect users to get hit by DMCA strikes eventually.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
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