The three-year legal cage match between music publishers and X Corp just ended in a mutual walkaway, and nobody's talking about whether a licensing deal actually happened. Both sides filed joint dismissals with prejudice in Tennessee and Texas federal courts, killing the copyright suit and X's antitrust counterclaim permanently. Each party eats its legal fees. No settlement terms surfaced.
For context, 17 publishers led by the NMPA chased over $250 million across roughly 1,700 works, with Sony, UMPG, and Warner Chappell in the mix. X fired back with an antitrust claim alleging collusion through nearly 500,000 takedown notices. Then the Supreme Court's unanimous Cox ruling gutted the last contributory angle the publishers had left.
And the kicker? Meta, YouTube, and TikTok all carry licensed music from those same publishers. X still doesn't, and neither filing clarifies whether that changed behind closed doors.
For context, 17 publishers led by the NMPA chased over $250 million across roughly 1,700 works, with Sony, UMPG, and Warner Chappell in the mix. X fired back with an antitrust claim alleging collusion through nearly 500,000 takedown notices. Then the Supreme Court's unanimous Cox ruling gutted the last contributory angle the publishers had left.
And the kicker? Meta, YouTube, and TikTok all carry licensed music from those same publishers. X still doesn't, and neither filing clarifies whether that changed behind closed doors.
