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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Oct 5th 2005 4:55pm





Six Months In Jail For Preventing People From Singing Incorrect Lyrics?

from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept

For years and years the recording industry has freaked out about sites that post lyrics online, claiming copyright violation. Of course, it's hard to understand why they would feel that way. Lyrics sites are obviously for fans that enjoy the music and want to know more about it. It's hard to see how the recording industry could claim losses from these lyrics sites. However, in the latest such case, a French court has thrown the operator of a lyrics site in jail for six months. Who knew that encouraging music fans to sing the right lyrics deserved jail time? Just imagine what would happen to a site like KissThisGuy.com, which is entirely focused on helping people stop misunderstanding lyrics. Update: Aha. Slight corrections. He got six months imprisonment probation... so he isn't in jail (but could go if he screws up). Also, the suit was filed by sheet music creators, who might have a slightly more reasonable claim -- though, still a fairly weak one.

7 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    imprisonment on probation

    identicon
    Rik, Oct 5th, 2005 @ 5:10pm

    The operator actually got six months imprisonment on probation, so he only risks serving jail time. And the plaintiffs were publishing houses holding the rights to the sheet music, not the recording industry. Though I don't think this makes a (non-legal) difference for the fan base.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    what's good for the goose....

    identicon
    jayrtfm, Oct 5th, 2005 @ 6:10pm

    so if I enjoy your writing and want to share it with others who want to know more about it, you wouldn't mind if I publish your Techdirt Corporate Intelligence reports on my fan site?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: what's good for the goose....

    identicon
    Solarcanine, Oct 5th, 2005 @ 6:46pm

    so if I enjoy your writing and want to share it with others who want to know more about it, you wouldn't mind if I publish your Techdirt Corporate Intelligence reports on my fan site?

    I suppose that depends...if you transcribe the Corporate Intelligence report by listening to someone read it and publish your transcription, I think that would probably be safe. And many, many, many lyrics databases are formed thusly.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: what's good for the goose....

    icon
    Mike (profile), Oct 5th, 2005 @ 6:58pm

    We've gone over this a few times before, but in case you missed it, I'll reiterate: when we sell our corporate intelligence reports, they're quite customized, so it's usually unlikely that they're as valuable to others, but we do allow our customers to do whatever else they want with them... including sending them to others or posting them on a public website (and some have done this). Of course, most customers prefer to keep the info for themselves.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    pissing off the French!

    identicon
    lizard, Oct 5th, 2005 @ 7:39pm

    well, until the american courts decide they want a piece of this action, i'll just rejoice at the prospect that my little, tiny, itty, bitty lyrics site is somehow pissing off the French.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    eeyore, Oct 6th, 2005 @ 5:12am

    Maybe they should imprison whoever transcribes the lyrics to put on karaoke machines. Some of them are so blatantly wrong it stops the singer cold in their tracks. This however is not always a bad thing.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  

    Re: what's good for the goose....

    identicon
    jayrtfm, Oct 7th, 2005 @ 3:43pm

    yup, I did miss it. thankx.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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