Twitter
Music labels sue short message service
Twitter should pay license fees for the use of music.
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It’s about 250 million US dollars: major music labels are suing Twitter. The company refuses to pay royalties on music.
Now the short message service Twitter is going to court. As reported by the “Hollywood Reporter”., the three major music labels Universal, Sony and Warner, among others, have filed a lawsuit in a federal court in the US state of Tennessee. The licensors denounce that Twitter has refused to acquire music rights for years. Nevertheless, content would be distributed via the platform. Thus, the service violates copyright.
According to the report, a payment of at least 250 million US dollars is now in the room, but this could still add up. Around 1,700 works have been used illegally and hundreds of thousands of warnings have so far been ignored by Twitter, the complaint continues. Twitter had “consistently and knowingly hosted and streamed infringing copies of music” to “boost its business.” The requests to acquire the necessary licenses were repeatedly rejected.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Co. have agreements
Twitter is the only major social media platform without a music license agreement that allows companies to legally add music to videos and other content.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat have signed contracts with the labels. As the music label lawyers argue, Twitter’s illegal behavior gives it an unfair competitive advantage in the fight for market share.