The problems are beginning to pile up for Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The social media platform recently faced an exodus of advertisers after Musk appeared to endorse an antisemitic post on the platform.
Musk’s response to the exodus seems to have done little to woo those advertisers back. In a Q&A at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, he told the advertisers who had left the platform to “go f–k yourself,” specifically singling out Disney CEO Bob Iger.
X’s tumultuous relationship with the business world isn’t limited to tensions with advertisers; the comany has also found itself in confrontations with music rightsholders who allege that the company hasn’t paid for the use of their music on its platform.
In June, X Corp. was hit with a $250-million copyright infringement lawsuit in a Tennessee court, brought by 17 music industry entities including Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner-Chappell Music, along with a number of other music publishers such as ABKCO Music, BMG Rights Management, Hipgnosis Songs Group and Kobat Music Publishing America.
That lawsuit alleged “hundreds of thousands” of infringements of around 1,700 works.
(X Corp. fired back in August, filing a motion to dismiss that argued the plaintiffs “fail[ed] to adequately allege direct infringement” because their complaint did not “contend that X acted with the requisite ‘volitional’ conduct”.)
Now, in a district court in Munich, Germany, Swiss music licensing organization SUISA Digital has filed a lawsuit against Twitter International, the Ireland-headquartered subsidiary of X Corp. that operates the platform outside the US.
“Twitter International refuses to pay authors and publishers for music” represented by SUISA Digital, the company said in a statement issued on Wednesday (December 6).
“SUISA Digital’s attempts to enter into negotiations with Twitter International have been unsuccessful. Twitter did not react to several emails, with the exception [of] one automated reply, a standard text which simply pointed to a contact form for rightsholders to notify copyright infringements,” SUISA Digital’s statement continued.
“After SUISA Digital notified Twitter International of a number of musical works in videos on X, Twitter International neither sent a reply nor acted to remove the videos.”
The company said that “a considerable number” of works represented by SUISA Digital are available on X worldwide.
SUISA Digital says its lawsuit, filed in Munich I District Court, asks the court to order Twitter International to disclose its turnover and streaming figures “in full and without any gaps,” so that it can calculate the amount of money owed.
The company says it launched the lawsuit in Germany, rather than its country of registration, Liechtenstein, or its principal country of business, Switzerland, because “the markets in Switzerland and Liechtenstein are too small for a lawsuit to have an external impact.”
Additionally, in a small country, “there would also be a risk that Twitter International would withdraw its service from the market. This scenario is extremely unlikely in the case of a lawsuit in Germany.”
“Twitter International has benefited from the creative work of authors and publishers for years. We expect Twitter International to recognize the value of the work.”
Alexander Wolf, SESAC International
Liechtenstein-headquartered SUISA Digital is a subsidiary of SUISA, a Swiss cooperative society for composers, lyricists and music publishers with 40,000 members. SUISA Digital represents online music rights of SUISA and 14 other societies, as well as a number of publishers worldwide.
The company says it has signed licensing agreements with more than 80 online service providers, among them Apple Music, Meta Platforms, Spotify and YouTube.
In 2016, SUISA announced that it would join forces with US-headquartered performance rights organization SESAC to form Mint Digital Licensing, a joint venture to administer licenses for musical compositions in multi-territorial online music services on behalf of publishers and collective management organizations.
“This is the only way we can effectively represent the interests of authors and publishers and ensure that they are compensated fairly by Twitter International.”
Fabian Niggemeier, SUISA Digital
Alexander Wolf, President of SESAC International, said in a statement that SUISA Digital “has our full backing in its lawsuit against Twitter International. Twitter International has benefited from the creative work of authors and publishers for years. We expect Twitter International to recognize the value of the work.”
“SUISA Digital is using all of the resources at its disposal to defend the interests of authors and publishers it represents and is taking resolute action against the illegal use of music,” said Fabian Niggemeier, CEO of SUISA Digital.
“This is the only way we can effectively represent the interests of authors and publishers and ensure that they are compensated fairly by Twitter International.”
This isn’t the first time that Suisa Digital has taken a major social media platform to court over alleged copyright infringement. In May of 2022, it sued Snapchat owner Snap Inc., alleging that Snapchat “refuses to pay authors and publishers for music represented by [SUISA Digital] and used in videos on its Snapchat platform”.
In August of this year, Snapchat entered into a licensing agreement with SUISA Digital, and with a number of other groups worldwide, including UnitedMasters in the US, to add their music to its licensed sound library.Music Business Worldwide
