Elon Musk’s X Beats Most of Music Publishers’ Copyright Suit (1)

The social media platform X Corp. succeeded in trimming a sweeping copyright lawsuit from more than a dozen music publishers who alleged the Elon Musk-owned company profited from rampant music piracy.

US District Judge Aleta Trauger on Tuesday dismissed claims of direct and vicarious copyright infringement brought by the 17 publishers, which include Universal Music Corp. and Sony Music Publishing.

The judge also dismissed the publishers’ contributory infringement claim, but said they can advance their specific accusations that X, formerly known as Twitter, failed to properly police paying “verified” users and didn’t take down infringing posts quickly.

The publishers, all ...