X accuses music publishers of ‘weaponizing’ DMCA takedowns

X is suing euphony publishers and their waste and acquisition group, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), accusing them of attempted coercion successful their ongoing conflict complete licensing, arsenic reported earlier by The Hollywood Reporter. The Elon Musk-owned level accuses euphony publishers of colluding pinch the NMPA to “coerce X into taking licenses to philharmonic useful from the manufacture arsenic a whole, denying X the use of title betwixt euphony publishers.”

In the antitrust suit revenge connected Friday, X claims that the NMPA and euphony publishers “weaponized” the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) pinch requests to return down allegedly infringing content. The suit claims that successful 2021, the NMPA began “bombarding X pinch takedown notices each azygous week related to thousands of posts,” to “gain leverage and unit X” into industrywide licensing deals.

X has had problems pinch copyright and piracy pursuing Musk’s takeover. In 2023, for example, the full Super Mario Bros. Movie kept getting posted to X.

This filing is the latest wrinkle successful a years-long ineligible conflict betwixt X and the NMPA, which sued X for $250 cardinal successful 2023 for “massive” copyright infringement involving much than 1,700 songs.. A judge upheld parts of the still-pending lawsuit successful 2024, and a November 2025 filing stated X and the NMPA “have made very important advancement toward settlement,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

X is asking the tribunal for monetary damages and for the judge to artifact the NMPA from allegedly forcing X to collectively discuss pinch the publishers.