Elon Musk’s X Corp and major music labels, including Universal Music Group and Sony Music, have agreed to end a legal dispute over the use of their music on the X social-media platform. The agreement was announced in federal court filings, which asked a Tennessee federal court to dismiss the labels’ lawsuit that accused X of infringing hundreds of their copyrights by allowing its users to post their songs without a license.
Background of the Dispute
A group of 17 music publishers sued X in Nashville, Tennessee in 2023, seeking more than $250 million in damages for the alleged infringement of nearly 1,700 copyrights. The lawsuit said that X ‘routinely ignores’ users’ copyright infringement and that other major platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube properly license music from the publishers.
X convinced the court to dismiss much of the lawsuit in 2024. U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said that X could not be held liable for direct or vicarious copyright infringement, but allowed part of the labels’ contributory infringement claim to continue. X countersued the publishers in Texas in January, accusing them of violating federal antitrust law by refusing to negotiate individual licensing deals.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
