Music Publishers File Against X For Second Time

A group of music publishers have submitted another filing in their ongoing legal battle with X, formally known as Twitter, hitting back at the social media firm’s motion for dismissal.

They dispute X’s interpretation of US copyright law regarding what is required to hold it liable for copyright infringement. But then also claim that – even if the court accepted X’s interpretation of the law – those requirements have been met.

The music publishers filed their lawsuit in June, alleging that X “fuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical compositions, violating publishers’ and others’ exclusive rights under copyright law”.

It was a long time coming. Long before Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and the subsequent rebrand as X, the music industry criticised the social media company for never securing music licences despite allowing users to post videos to its platform that routinely contain copyright-protected music.

If the case gets to court, the dispute will likely focus on the good old copyright safe harbour. X can avoid liability for copyright infringing content uploaded by its users providing it has a takedown system in place to deal with infringement and infringers when made aware of such things by copyright owners.

X does have a takedown system, but the publishers argue that it is insufficient for the social media company to avoid liability via the safe harbour in the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This means that X would have to demonstrate how its takedown system is, in fact, up to scratch.