As the New York Times reports, 17 music publishers have joined together to sue Elon Musk’s social network for $250 million. The companies argue that Twitter has not struck an agreement to license the music posted on its platform. The suit cites 1,700 infringing songs and requests $150,000 per tune.

The suit reportedly outlines the ways the companies have attempted to notify Twitter of these infractions via the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The companies have sent about 300,000 DCMA notifications since December 2021. One offending tweet cited by the suit includes two minutes of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” which has 221,000 views and 15,000 likes. The suit also quotes a tweet where Musk writes, “Overzealous DMCA is a plague on humanity.”

“This statement and others like it exert pressure on Twitter employees, including those in its trust and safety team, on issues relating to copyright and infringement,” argues the suit brought by the National Music Publishers’ Association on firms including Sony Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management and Universal Music Publishing Group.

A list of 1,700 songs is included in the court filing, with the plaintiffs claiming that each had been uploaded by “specific users who had already been identified in multiple earlier notices”. In each case, it says, Twitter “did not expeditiously remove or disable access”.

Twitter made discussions with the three major labels to negotiate licensing rights before Musk bought the company and put the talks on hold. David Israelite, the president of the National Music Publishers’ Association, said in a statement, “Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service.”

The lawsuit asks for a $150,000 penalty for each one of the thousands of violations.