The many music publishers who sued Elon Musk’s X over alleged copyright infringement are aiming to settle the matter out of court.

That’s according to an order for a stay of proceedings filed by the court on Wednesday (June 11), and obtained by MBW.

According to the order, the judge has temporarily frozen all legal proceedings in this case for 90 days after both parties jointly requested the pause to try to settle the dispute outside of court.

An NMPA spokesperson told MBW on Monday (June 16) that “the intent of the stay is to discuss with X the resolution of the suit and proper compensation to songwriters and publishers for past unlicensed uses, while providing an opportunity for go forward licensing.”

A petition for a stay of proceedings was filed jointly by the publishers and X Corp on June 6 in a Tennessee federal court, where the legal showdown between the music companies and the platform formerly known as Twitter has been running for the past two years.

The music publishers and X Corp “have determined to engage in good-faith efforts to fully and amicably resolve this lawsuit,” stated the joint motion, which can be read in full here.

“Granting a 90-day stay may facilitate an orderly and negotiated resolution, and thus further the interest of judicial efficiency.”

According to the order granted on Wednesday, which you can see here, “if the discussions result in a resolution, the Parties will promptly file an appropriate dismissal with the Court”.

“The intent of the stay is to discuss with X the resolution of the suit and proper compensation to songwriters and publishers for past unlicensed uses, while providing an opportunity for go forward licensing.”

NMPA spokesperson

It added: “If the Parties’ discussions are not successful, the Parties will promptly notify the Court. If discussions remain productive, but a resolution has not been reached within 90 days, the Parties may jointly request a further extension.”

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.

Joining the three major publishers in the lawsuit are Downtown Music, Hipgnosis Songs Group, Kobalt, peermusic, Reservoir Media, and others.

The initial complaint sought more than $250 million in damages for “hundreds of thousands” of alleged infringements of approximately 1,700 works.

“Twitter fuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical compositions, violating Publishers’ and others’ exclusive rights under copyright law,” the publishers’ complaint stated.

“Twitter knows full well that music is leaked, launched, and streamed by billions of people every day on its platform. No longer can it hide behind the DMCA and refuse to pay songwriters and music publishers.”

The DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is a US law that gives internet platforms immunity from copyright liability, provided the platform makes an effort to remove flagged content.

“Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service,” National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) President and CEO David Israelite said at the time.

In March 2024, per court documents, Judge Aleta Trauger of the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee partially granted X Corp’s motion to dismiss the case, throwing out charges of direct, vicarious, and contributory copyright infringement.

However, the judge allowed the case to go forward on three other allegations: That X provided “more lenient copyright enforcement to ‘verified users;’ that it failed to take down infringing materials “in a timely manner;” and that it “failed to take reasonable steps in response to severe serial infringers.”

The joint move by the publishers and X to attempt an out-of-court settlement comes in the wake of an escalating dispute over X Corp’s request for access to documents from the NMPA, which is not a plaintiff in the case but – according to X Corp’s lawyers – helped coordinate the lawsuit.

On May 30, X Corp’s lawyers asked a federal court in the District of Columbia to compel the NMPA to hand over documents related to the case held by Israelite. The documents evidently relate to a copyright infringement notification program developed by the NMPA, among other things.

A court filing shows that on Monday (June 9), X Corp withdrew the motion to compel, but reserved “all rights to refile based on the result of the parties’ good-faith efforts to fully and amicably resolve their dispute.”Music Business Worldwide