Elon Musk scored a major legal victory on Tuesday when a US district court judge dismissed most of a lawsuit filed by 17 music publishers against social media platform X.
However, the decision also brings with it a problem; Some of the case’s core claims are in a position to move forward.
Music publishers including Sony and Universal Music accused X of ignoring the copyrights of 1,700 songs by allowing people to post clips of artists including Taylor Swift on its platform without permission. “Twitter’s incentive not to act quickly is clear,” the companies noted in their June 2023 filing. Twitter wants to maximize the benefit it can get from infringing content on its platform before the tweet is deleted. As a general proposition, the value of a tweet to Twitter decreases over time.”
BMG, Sony, Universal Music and other members of National Music Publishers‘ Trade group Association (NMPA) was seeking more than $250 million in damages, claiming that “Twitter has made it extremely easy for users to upload infringing music to its platform with just a few clicks.”
“The fact is that Twitter routinely ignores known violations and known violations and refuses to take simple steps that Twitter could use to stop these specific instances of violations that it is aware of.”
But U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger did not place blame on X for direct infringement in her 21-page decision Tuesday, noting the difference in federal copyright law between being an active participant in infringement and the platform merely enabling it.
He added that Twitter appeared to be even less harsh on “verified” individuals, which was “particularly striking.”
“If X Corp. actually allowed some users to effectively purchase the right to infringe with less severe consequences, then this was likely an example of encouraging the use of X/Twitter to infringe copyright,” Trauger wrote.
Twitter decided to dismiss the case last August, claiming that social media sites were not responsible for publishing illegal material on the platform and did not directly violate copyrights. On Tuesday, Judge Trauger agreed.
“There is no basis in the law to conclude that the operator of a social media platform would face liability simply because the practice is less harsh than copyright holders would prefer,” Trauger said, adding that the court would reject the publishers’ “theory.” Comprehensive general liability for violations on the X/Twitter platform.”
“X Corp. undoubtedly had some power over X/Twitter users — just as a company providing a valuable service always has power over the customers who trust it — but that doesn’t even turn customers into loose equivalents of middlemen or subordinates. ”
Judge Trauger dismissed two infringement charges: Direct Copyright Infringement and Indirect Infringement, along with a third, Contributory Infringement, but took exception to the infringement charges that the platform “provided more lenient copyright enforcement to ‘verified’ users” and “failed to do so.” took timely action on takedown notices” and “failed to take reasonable steps in response to serious serial violations.”
Twitter could be held liable for damages if the alleged conduct is proven, Trauger said.
“If X Corp. experiences significant delays in responding to valid takedown notices or completely ignores some notices that are valid both on face and in fact, this may support liability.”
Lawyers for both Xs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “We are pleased that the court recognized Twitter’s potential liability and that the publishers’ copyright infringement claim for all works alleged in the lawsuit will move forward,” a spokesperson for the NMPA told The Daily Beast. The opinion makes clear that Twitter may be liable for failing to reasonably respond to publishers’ takedown notices.
Twitter must act reasonably against known violations and repeat violations. The spread of rampant music piracy on the platform is clear and unacceptable; “We look forward to receiving fair compensation for the songwriters and music publishers whose work was stolen.”
The first case management conference has been reset to May 20, 2024.
Musk bought Twitter on October 22 for $44 billion.
In filing, the publishers noted that they had made successful deals with other social media companies “to pioneer innovative and highly successful frameworks for social media users to legally use Publishers’ songs on these platforms.” It included deals related to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok; but the latter saw Universal remove its library on January 30, saying in an open letter that the companies had failed to agree on three key issues: “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of artificial intelligence, and ensuring online safety for TikTok users.”
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