Bad news for Lyrics site owners

[Westech]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4508158.stm

Everyone's always known that lyrics sites were technically illegal, but it looks like the music industry has decided not to ignore them any longer. They are actually pushing for JAIL TIME for webmasters who publish song lyrics on their sites.

[deronsizemore]

Maybe this is a really dumb question...but why is posting lyrics illegal? To me it doesn't seem illegal...unless of course you're making money off selling the lyrics some way.

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Cos you dont own the copyright

[Mike]

Wouldn't they be better spending their time and money on taking action against P2P services?

[moonshield]

unless of course you're making money off selling the lyrics some way.

People who own lyrics sites are making money off the advertisements. I would not be suprised if the record labels start up their own lyrics sites and shut down the third-party sites.

[The New Guy]

They're just trying to make news anyway they can.

[Chris]

Heh... looks like sheet music companies are driving this.

I thinks its BS. Take Dave Matthews. I'm sure he doesn't care that sites post guitar tabs for his songs. I'm sure he knows most of his fans like playing the music themselves (if they know an instrument) and I'm sure he knows that that is one thing that makes his fan base so big.

So I'm sure that if his label started suing his biggest fans he might go look for a new label.

Guitar tabs are not copies of sheet music. They're usually written by fans who just listen to a song over and over to figure out what the notes are.

But ya... I would never run a lyrics site because of this risk.

[Westech]

People who own lyrics sites are making money off the advertisements. I would not be suprised if the record labels start up their own lyrics sites and shut down the third-party sites.

That would be a good idea (from the record labels' point of view) but I don't think they're smart enough to do anything that makes that much sense.

More likely they have it in their heads that people having free access to lyrics sites reduces the amount of albums and sheet music that they'll be able to sell.

[Hylo]

Vive La Revolucion! Again and again the dinosaurs who run the music industry are wasting their time and resources, that could be plowed into developing bands and artists, on "moral" crusades like this. Surely they would better off spending their time looking to the future of their industry and seeing how they can find a viable position in it as more independent bands and labels find new technologies that are making the old guard increasingly redundant. About bloody time too.

What do they hope to achieve with jailtime for lyrics site owners? Will this save their monopoly and the millions they leech off the back of ordinary musicians and music fans?

Sorry, deep breaths, must resist the urge to completely slate the corporate music industry after warning Deronsizemore on the other thread about libellous remarks in forums;)

[Chris]

Vive La Revolucion! Again and again the dinosaurs who run the music industry are wasting their time and resources, that could be plowed into developing bands and artists, on "moral" crusades like this. Surely they would better off spending their time looking to the future of their industry and seeing how they can find a viable position in it as more independent bands and labels find new technologies that are making the old guard increasingly redundant. About bloody time too.

Ya... they put out crap bands like nickelback (http://www.theweb****e.net/nickelback.htm) and wonder why their revenues decline. (and by the way the new crappyback song on the radio is exactly like the 2 in that link.)

[moonshield]

^ The link is edited, lol.

[Hylo]

I have two words which sum up the horror of the music industry...



Ashlee Simpson.

I shall say no more on this subject.

[Cutter]

I seem to recall way back in 1999 or so some lyrics site was shut down and it was reported on Slashdot. There is a big disconnection between industry lawyers and lobbyists and musicians. The mainstream music industry has an entire business model built around signing and creating musicians, where as independant bands make this industry no money. So while things like mp3s, free lyrics, and the like have been an enormous boost to the small bands it doesn't really help out people like Ashlee Simpson so much.

If a record label invests $10 million to promote an artist, and some little garage band comes out of no where, that doesn't make them too happy -- especially when its more like 10 or 20 little bands.

No matter what your opinion is, its whats the courts decide that is important. Fighting legal battles is enormously expensive. There are webmasters in the adult industry that have spents hundreds of thousands of dollars just to prove that they are not doing anything illegal in the first place!

If you don't own the copyright to something, you have better of talked to your lawyer about what kinds of legal protections you have, such as fair use, or else you really are playing with fire.

[James]

http://nickelbad.ytmnd.com/ tough to listen to, but funny.
Actually, that main guy from Nickleback lives around here, and everyone I know has seen him out and about. He's a dick and everybody hates him--it's kinda interesting, because they already did hate him for his attitude before he was making ****ty songs that took the hate up a notch.

Tabs and lyrics sites are almost the same, legality wise. Probably 1% of tabs are completely correct, and there seems to be about the same ratio for lyrics.

[moonshield]

^ I think tabs are different as they are a person's interpretation of the song.

[James]

^^ Riiiiiiiiight over your head :P

[Westech]

And the mass exodus begins: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=325291

[Cutter]

$300 a month -- you wouldn't even be able to afford to ask a lawyer a couple questions with that.

[deronsizemore]

Evidently the guy who bid 2500 dollars for those sites didn't realize everyone was getting sued.

[eMEraLdwPn]

this puts me in a bit of a bad situation, seeing as how my only income comes from my lyrics & tabs sites. based on the two articles i read, i don't think this would become a problem for me for a considerable amount of time:

The MPA would target "very big sites that people would think are legitimate and very, very popular", Mr Keiser said.
i can think of at least 10 sites off the top of my head that would be targetted way before i would, and there's probably another 50-100 out there that are still bigger than me. oh yeah, 2 of my 3 sites also aren't registered in my name, don't know if that matters or not :p.

you guys think i should try to sell them now, or is it too late? or maybe wait til the first sites start getting shut down and see how long it's taking, etc, as i'm highly unlikely to be among the first targeted?

[James]

I'd say if you don't think you'll run into any issues of retaining the sites for a short amount of time, it may be a good plan to sell it after the 'buzz' about lyrics sites dies down a bit if you really feel the need to sell it.

[paul]

It seems like a tremendous opportunity for someone who knows or wants to learn to play the asset protection game to buy cheap and milk profits :)

[Emancipator]

I am going to start a theme song and SUE anyone i hear humming it. Or send my army of storm troopers to CRUSH them with their jackboots

*stares at westech*

[SWD]

I run www.hottesttabs.com , should I keep it or sale it? am I in trouble?