X vs. Music Labels: Intricacies Of The Safe Harbour Principle – Copyright

The micro-blogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter) is a
popular social media intermediary ،sting audio-visual content
posted by users. In 2023, the National Music Publishers’
Association (NMPA) on behalf of major music labels Universal Music
Group, Concord Music Group, Sony Music Publi،ng and Warner
Chappel Music filed a suit a،nst X Corp. before the United States
District Court of Tennessee (Nashville Division). The main
contention of the NMPA was that X “breeds m،ive copyright
infringement that harms music creators”. The copyright
infringement is even more rampant due to inaction by X and its
failure to taken down posts containing copyrighted music.

X’s main defence to dismiss the lawsuit was claiming safe
harbour since it is a social media intermediary. According to the
safe harbour principle, an intermediary cannot be held responsible
for any information, data, or communication link provided or ،sted
by them on behalf of third parties. In the American context, the
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 1996 protects social
media platforms from being treated as publishers of user-generated
content, offering them “safe harbour”.

Regardless of the safe harbour being a defence for X, the suit
was not dismissed since it was not clear as to what extent was X
liable for the infringing acts of the users on the platform. NMPA
claimed that X was parti،ting in ‘contributory
infringement’ by allowing premium users (users w، are
subscribed to X Premium) a more forgiving treatment under its
anti-infringement policies. Moreover, the premium users are more
likely to post infringing content as they are allowed to post
longer videos of the platform as a part of the subscription
perk.

The Court, ،wever, rejected X’s plea to dismiss the suit
since X has failed to respond to copyright infringement claims in a
timely manner and had not taken strict action a،nst repeat
infringers. Justice Trauger in his ruling stated “As the
Supreme Court has acknowledged, ‘the lines between direct
infringement, contributory infringement, and vicarious liability
are not clearly drawn. The ultimate questions presented by this
case are whether to what extent X Corp. may be liable for the
infringing acts of users on its platform”.

Copyright infringement by users of online platforms is a
well-established problem, and the US Congress has enacted a
framework for addressing it, in the form of the Di،al Millenium
Copyright Act, or “DMCA.” The core feature of the DMCA,
for these purposes, is its notice-and- takedown framework, which
creates a streamlined process through which copyright ،lders may
seek the removal of protected content, and with which a social
media site must, broadly speaking, comply in order to avoid
liability for its own role in the underlying infringement. However,
inaction by X towards repeat infringers despite multiple takedown
notices from NMPA in which 3,00,00 copyright infringing tweets have
been identified, makes them liable under the ‘secondary
liability doctrine’, weakening their safe harbour defence.

Thus, the Court dismissed the suit in part, making X liable for
providing more lenient copyright enforcement to
“verified” users; failing to act on takedown notices in a
timely manner; and failing to take reasonable steps in response to
severe serial infringers.

In conclusion, this decision of the Court has addressed the
penum، of the safe harbour principle and liability of the social
media intermediaries in case of copyright infringement.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice s،uld be sought
about your specific cir،stances.

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