Elon Musk called copyright a ‘plague on humanity’ and now he’s being sued for $250 million by music publishers who claim Twitter stole their content
A group of music companies is suing Twitter for over $250 million, claiming the platform has ignored many copyright violation notices. The coalition is composed of 17 music publishers, including such big names as Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Corp., and Big Machine Music. One problem for Elon Musk in defending the lawsuit is that he’s said he considers copyright a “plague on humanity.” The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) is representing the coalition in the suit, which claims that publishers sent copyright violation notices for 1,700 songs, on which the social network took no action. The coalition is seeking fines of up to $150,000 per violation. “Twitter has engaged in, knowingly facilitated, and profited from copyright infringement, at the expense of music creators, to whom Twitter pays nothing,” the plaintiffs allege. NMPA CEO David Israelite emailed a statement to Fortune expounding on the case: “Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platfor