Last week several unreleased songs by Hip Hop superstar Drake hit the social media platform X, however this week they are all gone thanks to copyright claims by rights owners.
Several publications reported that Drakes unreleased songs collabs with Dancehall stars Shenseea, Skillibeng leaks online but a search of the in question Drake Nah Nah ft. Skillibeng (Honestly, Nevermind era) or Plenty by Drake (ft. Shensea) (2020) on X and YouTube will turn up a copyright message stating, “this media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”
In March, the Elon Musk owned X, the social media platform, won the dismissal of most of a lawsuit brought by 17 music publishers accusing it of infringing copyrights on nearly 1,700 songs by allowing users to post music without permission.
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger in Nashville, Tennessee, ruled that the publishers could not pursue a theory of “comprehensive general liability for infringement” against X (formerly Twitter), which Musk acquired for $44 billion in October 2022.
According to Reuters, Judge Trauger dismissed two infringement claims and a third claim for “contributory” infringement, except for allegations that X failed to adequately police “verified” users and serial infringers, and did not respond promptly to takedown notices.
Sony Music, Universal Music, and other members of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) had filed the lawsuit against X in June 2022, seeking more than $250 million in damages.
In a statement, the NMPA expressed satisfaction that the judge allowed them to pursue the remaining claim. “The spread of rampant music piracy on the platform is obvious and unacceptable, and we look forward to securing just compensation for the songwriters and music publishers whose work is being stolen,” the group said.
The publishers accused X of routinely ignoring and encouraging copyright infringement, giving it an unfair advantage over platforms like Meta’s Facebook, Google’s YouTube, and ByteDance’s TikTok, which properly license music. They also claimed that the issue worsened after Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
In her 21-page decision, Judge Trauger stated that X was not liable for direct infringement, highlighting the distinction in federal copyright law between active participants in infringement and entities like X that merely provide a platform for it.
She also ruled that X was not liable for “vicarious” infringement, noting that the platform was not responsible for policing how posts were drafted or obtaining copyright permission in advance.
“X Corp undoubtedly had some power over X/Twitter’s users—the way that a company providing a valued service always has power over the customers who rely on it—but that does not turn customers into even loose equivalents of agents or subordinates,” Trauger wrote.
Music publishers represent copyrights for songwriters, not the songs themselves.
