August 27, 2009 - 2:50am
US music publishers are opening up another can of web whoop-ass on alleged copyright-infringement miscreants, this time suing online lyrics sites.
On Monday, the National Music Publishers Association announced that three of its members Peermusic, Warner/Chappell, and BugMusic have filed suit against two websites that threaten the commonwealth by posting song lyrics without paying the NMPA for the right to do so. The two targets of their suit are LiveUniverse, producer of hugely popular video, social-networking, and music sites, headed up by MySpace founder Bud Greenspan; and Motive Force LLC, the group behind free-lyric site LyricWiki and led by Sean Colombo. In addition to suing the sites, the NMPA is also suing Greenspan and Colombo as individuals.
The amount of money involved is huge. Thus, the suit against Motive Force cites hundreds of thousands of lyrics on LyricWiki, and claims that "Plaintiffs are entitled to maximum statutory damages ... in the amount of $150,000 for each timely-registered works that was infringed."
In the suits, the plaintiffs describe themselves as "music publishers that, collectively, represent many thousands of individual songwriters who have written millions of musical compositions, including some of the most popular and beloved songs of all time."
It is supposed that "Pussy Monster" by Lil Wayne, represented by Warner/Chappell, is among the beloved songs to which the suit refers. Lil Wayne's delicate expression of lyrical imagination is legally hosted on TuneWiki, with which the NMPA has a licensing agreement. In a canned statement explaining his reasoning behind the suit, NMPA president and CEO David Israelite said: "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."
The suit against LyricWiki also states that the site "knowingly assist[s] and induce[s] third-party software developers to distribute copies of lyrics from Plaintiff's Songs to consumers' computers and personal media player." However, earlier this month Colombo published a letter on the LyricWiki API Developers Google Group telling developers that licensing agreements with big music publishers meant that the company could no longer add programmatic access to LyricWiki's collection.
Meanwhile, the suit against Colombo and Motive Force states that: "Defendants plainly understand that the lyrics featured on the LyricWiki Website...are subject to copyright protection and have knowingly decided to forgo obtaining the necessary license from the copyright owners simply to maximize their profits at the expense of Plaintiffs and the songwriters."
On Monday, the National Music Publishers Association announced that three of its members Peermusic, Warner/Chappell, and BugMusic have filed suit against two websites that threaten the commonwealth by posting song lyrics without paying the NMPA for the right to do so. The two targets of their suit are LiveUniverse, producer of hugely popular video, social-networking, and music sites, headed up by MySpace founder Bud Greenspan; and Motive Force LLC, the group behind free-lyric site LyricWiki and led by Sean Colombo. In addition to suing the sites, the NMPA is also suing Greenspan and Colombo as individuals.
The amount of money involved is huge. Thus, the suit against Motive Force cites hundreds of thousands of lyrics on LyricWiki, and claims that "Plaintiffs are entitled to maximum statutory damages ... in the amount of $150,000 for each timely-registered works that was infringed."
In the suits, the plaintiffs describe themselves as "music publishers that, collectively, represent many thousands of individual songwriters who have written millions of musical compositions, including some of the most popular and beloved songs of all time."
It is supposed that "Pussy Monster" by Lil Wayne, represented by Warner/Chappell, is among the beloved songs to which the suit refers. Lil Wayne's delicate expression of lyrical imagination is legally hosted on TuneWiki, with which the NMPA has a licensing agreement. In a canned statement explaining his reasoning behind the suit, NMPA president and CEO David Israelite said: "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."
The suit against LyricWiki also states that the site "knowingly assist[s] and induce[s] third-party software developers to distribute copies of lyrics from Plaintiff's Songs to consumers' computers and personal media player." However, earlier this month Colombo published a letter on the LyricWiki API Developers Google Group telling developers that licensing agreements with big music publishers meant that the company could no longer add programmatic access to LyricWiki's collection.
Meanwhile, the suit against Colombo and Motive Force states that: "Defendants plainly understand that the lyrics featured on the LyricWiki Website...are subject to copyright protection and have knowingly decided to forgo obtaining the necessary license from the copyright owners simply to maximize their profits at the expense of Plaintiffs and the songwriters."