Elon Musk’s X Corp has filed an antitrust lawsuit against dozens of music publishers – plus the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) – accusing them of colluding to force the social media platform into taking industrywide licenses at “supracompetitive rates”.
At the heart of the complaint: an allegation that the NMPA coordinated a campaign to inundate X with DMCA takedown notices on behalf of publishers – over 200,000 posts targeted in the first year alone, and nearly 500,000 since the major publishers joined the effort in 2023.
X claims this campaign was designed to unfairly pressure the platform into licensing deals, rather than to address legitimate copyright concerns.
A prediction: the music industry players involved in this suit may soon point to both Meta/Instagram and YouTube, where similar widespread takedown requests have occurred in the past – but ultimately led to harmonious licensing agreements.
YouTube has said it paid music industry rightsholders over USD $8 billion in the year to end of June 2025. Around 30% of that money is expected to have been generated by ads on user-generated content videos that contain music – with the correct rightsholders detected by the platform’s Content ID technology.
X Corp’s 53-page complaint, filed on Friday (January 9) in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas and obtained by MBW, names the NMPA along with what the filing describes as “18 Music Publishers and their affiliates” as defendants.
X alleges that these publishers “colluded through NMPA in a concerted refusal to deal with X independently” and that “the object of this scheme [was] to coerce X into taking licenses to musical works from the industry as a whole, denying X the benefit of competition between music publishers”.
The complaint claims this alleged collusion “is in keeping with NMPA President and CEO David Israelite‘s admonition that the music-publishing industry should ‘work together to expand the pie,’ and not turn on one another to try and get a bigger piece of the pie.’”
At the center of X’s allegations is a claimed October 2021 email from Israelite to X, sent on behalf of “all music publishers”.
According to the complaint, Israelite “threatened that NMPA would soon launch ‘a massive program’ to inundate X with DMCA takedown notices ‘on a scale larger than any previous effort in DMCA history’”.
X claims that Israelite warned the program would harm X by “quickly turn[ing] many of [X’s] most popular users into repeat infringers,” which would require X to deplatform them under its policies.
The complaint alleges that Israelite made clear that “X could make this all go away—for a price”.
According to X: “Mr. Israelite explained that X could avoid a coordinated takedown-notice barrage if it agreed to do ‘what many other social media companies have done’ and ‘develop a partnership’ with NMPA and the Music Publishers to license their musical compositions.”
Standard practice or collusion?
What X characterizes as anticompetitive collusion, music publishers would argue is standard industry practice.
For one thing, the licensing arrangements that X’s lawsuit attacks are the same frameworks in place with virtually every other major social media platform.
As X’s own complaint acknowledges, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snap, Twitch, and Roblox have all entered into licensing agreements with music publishers, in many cases following negotiations coordinated through the NMPA.
Publishers would therefore likely argue that X is not a victim of collusion – but rather an outlier that has refused to pay for music while its competitors have done so.
“We allege that X has engaged in copyright infringement for years, and its meritless lawsuit is a bad faith effort to distract from publishers’ and songwriters’ legitimate right to enforce against X’s illegal use of their songs.”
David Israelite, NMPA
Indeed, X’s lawsuit directly cites a public tweet from David Israelite to Elon Musk in April 2022, after news broke that Musk would acquire Twitter: “@elonmusk Please fix the Twitter policy of not paying songwriters for their contribution to the platform. All other major social media companies have already done the same.”
Responding to X’s antitrust lawsuit, NMPA President and CEO David Israelite said in a statement to media: “X/Twitter is the only major social media company that does not license the songs on its platform.
“We allege that X has engaged in copyright infringement for years, and its meritless lawsuit is a bad faith effort to distract from publishers’ and songwriters’ legitimate right to enforce against X’s illegal use of their songs.”
X brings its claims under Section 1 and Section 2 of the Sherman Act, alleging unlawful agreement in restraint of trade, conspiracy to monopolize, monopolization, and attempted monopolization.
The complaint alleges that the music publishers “account for over 90%” of the market for licenses to copyrighted musical compositions in the United States.
X is seeking a permanent injunction, treble damages, punitive damages, costs, and attorneys’ fees.
Over 200,000 posts targeted in first year
According to the lawsuit, the NMPA began bombarding X with takedown notices “virtually every single week” starting in December 2021.
“In the first year alone, these takedown notices identified over 200,000 X posts,” the complaint states, detailing weekly notices ranging from 84 pages to over 1,100 pages each.
The complaint adds: “And since the scheme began, the takedown notices have caused X to suspend more than 50,000 users because of claims of copyright infringement.”
X alleges that “these notices included allegedly infringing material from some of X’s top users with millions of followers,” including “creators like Logan Paul, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions football teams, bands Linkin Park and BTS, and media outlets like E! News, ESPN FC, and Golf Digest“.
The complaint claims that Universal, Sony, and Warner Chappell initially “declined to participate in the conspiracy orchestrated by NMPA and the remaining Music Publishers.”
The lawsuit quotes an alleged May 2022 email from a Warner Chappell Senior Vice President: “[We’ve] chosen not to be involved in any NMPA takedown activities to date as we have been hopeful that [X] would engage with us as they develop their music strategy, but we are getting regular inquiries from senior management about [X’s] licensing status.”
According to the complaint, by early 2023, “when none of the Majors had secured a musical-composition license agreement, they each joined the conspiracy to extract industrywide licenses.”
X claims that since the majors joined, “NMPA has sent thousands of pages of takedown notices, identifying nearly 500,000 posts allegedly infringing on copyrights of the Majors, as well as the Non-Majors.”
Allegations of ‘baseless’ takedowns
X argues that many of the NMPA’s takedown notices targeted content that was not subject to a legitimate claim of infringement, describing the campaign as “pretext” for an “extortionate” scheme.
It adds: “Not only have NMPA’s takedown notices claimed content similar to that posted by NMPA executives and lawyers was infringing, but they have also forced X to remove posts that are not subject to copyright protection.”
X cites examples including “a video of a high school’s sports-award ceremony” where “music plays briefly” until “the athlete takes the award and walks off the stage.”
The complaint states: “Although there is no reasonable basis for censoring this video focused on a high school athlete’s achievement based on the de minimis, non-commercial use of background music in the video, X had to take it down because of Defendants’ scheme.”
The lawsuit suggests that the alleged conspiracy against X follows a “broader playbook” that publishers and the NMPA have leveled against other platforms, including Twitch, Roblox, Peloton, and Snap.
Curiously, the evidence X cites for the NMPA’s “extortionate” playbook is a series of negotiations… that ended in what appear to be amicable licensing agreements.
Regarding Twitch, X’s complaint states that around May 2020, Amazon‘s livestreaming service “received a sudden influx of DMCA takedown notices from NMPA on behalf of music publishers”.
The lawsuit notes that the Twitch fallout ended in late September 2021 when the platform “announced a deal with NMPA to ‘build productive partnerships between the service and music publishers’”.
“Curiously, the evidence X cites for the NMPA’s “extortionate” playbook is a series of negotiations… that ended in what appear to be amicable licensing agreements.”
Similarly, the complaint notes that the NMPA and music publishers sued Roblox in June 2021, which “ended in September 2021, when Roblox and NMPA settled the claims against Roblox and set up ‘an industry-wide opt-in open to all eligible NMPA publishers’ to negotiate go-forward music-licensing deals.”
The NMPA announced at the time that the agreement “expands Roblox’s existing relationships with major publishers to the entire publishing industry.”
In other words, both Twitch and Roblox now pay (something) for music.
X argues that the decision to coordinate takedowns through the NMPA rather than individually “makes economic sense only if the objective is to facilitate coordination among competing Music Publishers and target X’s most popular users so as to apply maximum pressure to X to negotiate with them collectively”.
Many in the music business would argue that an industry-wide opt-in agreement for publishing licenses actually makes economic sense for another reason: it’s the quickest and most efficient route for social media sites with hundreds of millions of users to gain legal clearance for music content their audience is likely to upload.
Numerous music publishers, including Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Warner Chappell Music, sued X Corp in June 2023, alleging “rampant infringement of copyrighted music” on X.
The initial complaint sought more than USD $250 million in damages for approximately 1,700 works.
In June 2025, the music publishers and X were granted a 90-day pause to their copyright lawsuit for “good faith negotiations” to try to settle out of court.
A November 25 update to the court stated that the parties had “made very substantial progress toward settlement and worked on a written settlement agreement.”
X’s filing of this antitrust lawsuit obviously suggests those settlement discussions did not result in an agreement, despite this apparent progress.Music Business Worldwide
Andre Ward believes the smallest margins could decide one of boxing’s most intriguing potential match-ups between Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson — and that the difference may only reveal itself once the fight is already unfolding.
Speaking on All The Smoke Fight about the January 31 clash between Lopez and Stevenson, the former two-weight world champion offered a nuanced breakdown of how elite skill, adaptability and decision-making under pressure could shape the outcome, while stopping short of revealing his full hand early.
Ward made it clear that this is no superficial style-versus-style debate. At its core, he sees two fighters entering the ring fully aware of what awaits them.
“I respect them both because Teo knows it’s going to be a real fight. Shakur knows it’s going to be a real fight.”
But from there, Ward drew a telling contrast. In his eyes, Stevenson operates with rare creative freedom once the bell rings.
“I look at Shakur like a fighter who has a blank canvas. He’s got the IQ. He got the experience and the athleticism and the skill set where he can paint any type of picture he wants to on a blank canvas.”
Lopez, by contrast, is viewed as devastating but more structured.
“When I look at Teofimo Lopez, he’s almost that. He has a blank canvas, but he needs an outline on what to draw and what to paint inside the lines.”
Ward acknowledged Lopez’s explosive brilliance, even when it arrives unexpectedly.
“Every now and again, he’ll go away from the outline that he has and he’ll do something dope and you’ll be like, ‘Oh, that was cool.’”
Yet the former pound-for-pound star questioned whether that creativity can be summoned consistently against an elite equal.
“I don’t think that he can create on the fly like a Shakur Stevenson does.”
That is not to say Stevenson has an easy night. Ward stressed that Lopez’s power and athleticism present serious problems.
“What Shakur does have to deal with is explosive power, quick twitch muscles, and the type of punches that he likes to throw.”
Still, Ward believes the key difference lies in adaptation — especially when plans begin to fray.
“I think that’s going to be the difference in this fight is Shakur’s ability to make adjustments and to have a blank canvas and to create something out of thin air and figure it out.”
For Ward, that fleeting pause — the moment it takes to find the next solution — could be decisive.
“And I think just that little bit of time that it takes for him to look at that outline before he starts painting again… I think that’s gonna be the difference in this fight.”
It’s amazing how much mileage architects manage to get from the humble shipping container, with notable designs ranging from large apartment buildings and offices, to tiny houses. This example of the latter skillfully squeezes a comfortable home for two into a single shipping container.
The Teeny Tiny Haus was designed by Backcountry Containers and is based on a single standard shipping container. This means it has a modest length of 20 ft (6 m) and a width of just 8 ft (2.4 m), which works out as roughly the size of a smaller European tiny house like Baluchon’s Cardabelle. To put that into perspective, it’s also under half of the length of the Olivia Summit, by Tiny Mountain Houses, for example.
The big metal box has been painted a uniform orange and modified with a corrugated metal porch area with some seating and a table to expand living space outdoors. Additionally, multiple windows as well as large double glass doors have been added, helping fill the interior of the home with natural light.
The Teeny Tiny Haus’ kitchen is simple, reflecting its use as a vacation home
Amy MacDonald/Last Stand TX
That interior features a mostly open layout, all arranged on one floor. This is the same approach taken by Madeiguincho’s Cargo and works well with the small footprint. Its central area is taken up by a simple kitchen, reflecting its use as a vacation home, with a small fridge, a microwave, and some other basics. There’s also a dining table and some seating nearby.
The bedroom area includes a double bed and some storage space. Since there’s no sofa installed in this model, it can double as a daybed and general hangout area, and there’s a wall-mounted TV nearby plus a mini-split air-conditioning unit.
There’s just one separate room in the Teeny Tiny Haus, which is the bathroom. This contains a walk-in shower, a sink, and a toilet.
The Teeny Tiny Haus includes a double bed that can double as a daybed, since there’s no sofa installed in this model
Amy MacDonald/Last Stand TX
The Teeny Tiny Haus is located in Stonewall, Texas, as vacation rental on Airbnb. The container home is part of the larger Last Stand TX vacation rental development.
Watch: Protesters and security forces clash in Iran protests
Iran has warned it will retaliate if attacked by the US, as BBC sources and activists report hundreds of protesters have now been killed in an escalating government crackdown.
“Things here are very, very bad,” a source in Tehran said on Sunday. “A lot of our friends have been killed. They were firing live rounds. It’s like a war zone, the streets are full of blood. They’re taking away bodies in trucks.”
The BBC counted about 180 body bags in footage from near Tehran. The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) says it has verified the deaths of 495 protesters and 48 security personnel nationwide.
Another 10,600 people have been detained over the fortnight of unrest, the agency says.
The US has threatened to strike Iran over the killing of protesters, and President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US “stands ready to help” as Iran “is looking at FREEDOM”.
Trump did not elaborate on what the US was considering. He has been briefed on options for military strikes on Iran, an official told the BBC’s US news partner CBS.
Other approaches could include boosting anti-government sources online, using cyber-weapons against Iran’s military, or imposing more sanctions, officials told the Wall Street Journal.
Iran’s parliament speaker warned that if the US attacked, both Israel and US military and shipping centres in the region would become legitimate targets.
The protests which began over soaring inflation are now calling for an end to the clerical rule of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s attorney general said anyone protesting would be considered an “enemy of God” – an offence that carries the death penalty – while Khamenei has dismissed demonstrators as a “bunch of vandals” seeking to “please” Trump.
On Sunday the country announced three days of mourning for what it called “martyrs killed in Iranian national battle against the US and Israel”.
BBC Persian has verified that 70 bodies were brought to one hospital in the city of Rasht on Friday night, while a health worker at a Tehran hospital told the BBC: “Around 38 people died. Many as soon as they reached the emergency beds… direct shots to the heads of the young people, to their hearts as well. Many of them didn’t even make it to the hospital.”
The BBC and most other international news organisations are unable to report from inside Iran,and the Iranian government has imposed an internet shutdown since Thursday,making obtaining and verifying information difficult.
Some footage has emerged, including video showing rows of body bags at the Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Center of Tehran Province, in Kahrizak.
In one video from the site, about 180 shrouded or wrapped figures can be seen, the majority lying out in the open. Shouts and cries of distress can be heard from people who appear to be looking for their loved ones.
Video shows rows of body bags as protests continue in Iran
Several videos confirmed as recent by BBC Verify show clashes between protesters and security forces in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city.
Masked protesters can be seen taking cover behind bins and bonfires, with a row of security forces in the distance. A vehicle that appears to be a bus is engulfed in flames.
Multiple gunshots can be heard, and what sounds like banging on pots and pans.
A figure standing on a nearby footbridge appears to fire multiple gunshots in several directions as a couple of people take cover behind a fence.
In Tehran, a verified video from Saturday night shows protesters taking over the streets in the Gisha district, the sound of banging on pots in Punak Square, and a crowd marching and calling for the end of clerical rule in the Heravi district.
MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
Protesters gathered in a street in Tehran on Friday, 9 January
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has blamed the US and Israel for the unrest.
“They have trained certain individuals inside the country and abroad, brought terrorists into the country from outside, set mosques on fire, and attacked markets and guilds in Rasht, setting the bazaar ablaze,” he said without providing evidence.
However, footage authenticated by BBC Persian and BBC Verify confirms that Iran’s security officers have been shooting at gatherings of protesters in several areas. They include Tehran, the western Kermanshah province, and the southern Bushehr region.
Multiple verified videos filmed in the centre of the western city of Ilam last weekend also show security forces firing shots towards Imam Khomeini Hospital, where protesters were holding a rally.
Internet access in Iran is largely limited to a domestic intranet, with restricted links to the outside world. But during the current protests, authorities have for the first time severely restricted that too.
An expert told BBC Persian the shutdown is more severe than during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising in 2022.
Alireza Manafi, an internet researcher, said the only likely way to connect to the outside world was via Starlink satellite, but warned users to exercise caution as such connections could potentially be traced by the government.
Shah’s son tells protesters: ‘I will soon be by your side’
On Sunday, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, who lives in the US and whose return protesters have been calling for, told demonstrators that Trump had “carefully observed your indescribable bravery” in a social media post.
“Your compatriots around the world are proudly shouting your voice,” he wrote, pledging: “I know that I will soon be by your side.”
Pahlavi claimed the Islamic Republic was facing a “severe shortage of mercenaries” and that “many armed and security forces have left their workplaces or disobeyed orders to suppress the people”. The BBC could not verify these claims.
He encouraged people to continue protesting on Sunday evening, but to stay in groups or with crowds and not “endanger your lives”.
In the UK, videos shared on social media appear to show protesters removing Iran’s flag from a balcony on its London embassy on both Saturday and Sunday.
Iran has summoned the UK ambassador in Tehran following the incidents, according to Iranian state media.
Watch: Protesters take to the streets of Tehran on Friday night
The protests have been the most widespread since an uprising in 2022 sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
More than 550 people were killed and 20,000 detained by security forces over several months, according to human rights groups.
Additional reporting by Soroush Pakzad and Roja Assadi
A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.
Sudan’s military-led government has returned to the country’s capital after nearly three years of operating from its wartime base in the eastern city of Port Sudan.
Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris told reporters on Sunday that the “government of hope” was officially back in Khartoum and would begin efforts to improve services for the city’s beleaguered residents.
The military was forced out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) when civil war erupted between the two sides in 2023. The army recaptured it in a significant breakthrough last March.
Khartoum has been recovering from years of fighting. Roughly five million fled the city at the height of the conflict, according to the UN.
Those unwilling or unable to leave described a brutal RSF occupation, which included mass looting and fighters taking over civilian homes.
Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country’s oil products.
Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro’s capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”
