On October 16, 2019 NMPA CEO, David Israeilite, called on Congress, by sending a letter to Senator Marco Rubio, to investigate the app TikTok for claims of copyright infringement and violation of the rights of songwriters and music publishers.

The CEO went on to say, “The scale of TikTok’s copyright infringement in the U.S. is likely considerable and deserves scrutiny.”

For those of you that may have been living under a rock TikTok is a social media platform that allows videos to be uploaded and incorporates musical works. 

The Publishers Association is arguing that despite some publishers being able to negotiate with TikTok for licensing, a good amount of music publishers lack agreements which means TikTok is still unlawfully using works for which copyright owners are not being paid.

NERD DEEP DIVE: Link further explaining NMPA claims

However, the parent company of TikTok, chinese-owned ByteDancer responded stating TikTok has broad licensing coverage across the publishing industry, and they have paid royalties since its inception. 

NERD DEEP DIVE: Link with letter from NMPA

Confused on how songs make money in the first place? Check out this post on who really owns songs and how they make money even though no one buys CDs any more: https://www.shaymlawson.com/blog/2019/11/12/music-biz-101-how-do-songs-make-money

Huge thanks to my intern Whitnie Carter a 2L at John Marshall Law School pictured below for digging into the research and writing this post!

Look for most posts from Whitnie in the future and follow her law school journey online here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitnie15