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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.
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imprisonment on probation
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.
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what's good for the goose....
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?
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Re: what's good for the goose....
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.
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Re: what's good for the goose....
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.
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Re: what's good for the goose....
yup, I did miss it. thankx.
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pissing off the French!
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.
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No Subject Given
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.
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