📰 New article from TorrentFreak
X Asks Court to Dismiss Music Piracy Lawsuit After Supreme Court’s Cox Ruling
X Corpses the Music Industry’s Lawsuit—Thanks to a Supreme Court Win for ISPs
In a twist of legal karma, X Corp (formerly Twitter) is asking a federal court to fully dismiss a major music piracy lawsuit—thanks to last week’s Supreme Court ruling in Cox v. Sony, which reshaped the legal standard for contributory copyright infringement.
The case, brought by Universal, Sony, EMI, and the NMPA, accused X of ignoring repeat infringers and failing to terminate known pirates—even after receiving over 300,000 takedown notices. The music industry claimed X “breeds” infringement and turned a blind eye to pirated content, especially from verified (blue-checked) users.
But in 2024, X scored a partial win: the court dismissed direct and vicarious claims—and ruled that merely making infringement easy isn’t enough for liability. Still, the contributory claim limped forward… until Cox dropped.
Now, citing Cox, X argues the surviving claim fails as a matter of law. The Supreme Court ruled that contributory infringement requires either active inducement or a service with no substantial non-infringing uses. Social media, obviously, does both legitimate and illegitimate things—and X says no evidence shows it encouraged piracy.
Even more eyebrow-raising: the Court dismissed a case where Cox openly mocked the DMCA (“F the DMCA”)—proving that rude tweets aren’t enough. (Musk’s own “DMCA is a plague on humanity” comment, cited by plaintiffs, likely won’t cut it either.)
X wants the case tossed now, before both sides sink millions into discovery on a claim that’s legally dead. The music labels have agreed to pause proceedings—for now.
But this isn’t over: X recently sued the NMPA and majors for antitrust violations, claiming they abused the DMCA to strong-arm licensing deals. So while one battle may end, the war’s just shifting fronts.
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TL;DR: X is using a Supreme Court win for ISPs to kill a $-million piracy suit—and it’s not the only legal fight Elon’s company has brewing.