Surprisingly, it took this long for a copyright holder to sue Twitter for copyright infringement, but a photographer recently did so. The lawsuit alleges that someone shared a copyrighted photo owned by the photographer on Twitter. The account that shared the photo is no longer active. According to the complaint, the photographer issued a takedown notice pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") to Twitter. Allegedly, Twitter ignored the takedown notice prompting the photographer to file her lawsuit in California.
The question in the case is whether Twitter is liable for copyright infringement when one of its users shares a protected photograph even though the account is no longer active. Despite the account being inactive, the photograph remains on Twitter. The most likely avenue for asserting liability against Twitter would be if Twitter failed to act on the DMCA takedown notice. As long as an internet service provider (Twitter, in this case) complies with the DMCA in handling takedown notices, the internet service provider is not liable for copyright infringement.
This will be a case to keep an eye on as it progresses.
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