Music Publishers Suing Lyric Sites
The National Music Publishers’ Association filed complaints on Monday, August 24th against two companies alleging copyright infringement for their unauthorized use of song lyrics.
The companies – Motive Force and LiveUniverse – both operate web sites which allow users to read and search for song lyrics from thousands of songs. Both companies also use many “web 2.0″ features to allow users to access the lyric database in Facebook, iTunes, and other third-party applications.
A look at one of the complaints reveals that the Publishers’ Association is alleging, among other things, copyright infringement on the basis of unauthorized public display – one of the few times this particular exclusive right is relevant to musicians. The Association also alleges this infringement is not innocent: both companies, they claim, earn significant revenue from advertising, soliciting donations, and driving traffic to their other ventures.
Billboard reports that NMPA President David Israelite has been leading the NMPA in an effort over the last three years to protect songwriters’ lyrics by contacting hundreds of unauthorized lyric sites providing them opportunities to properly license their content or risk a lawsuit. Says Israelite, “Music fans are the biggest losers when licensed businesses, like LyricFind, Gracenote and TuneWiki can’t survive and prosper because unlicensed, illegal businesses are allowed to thumb their noses at the law.”
I agree with Mike Masnick on this one, lyric sites do more good for songwriters than harm.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090826/0102345997.shtml