General Discussions

**Galaxian** · 10-10-2007, 05:52 AM

I have a question.. are song lyrics copyrighted? For example, all these lyric sites, are they legal having all those song lyrics?

**hamesy** · 10-10-2007, 05:55 AM

I think they are copyrighted, and if another artist uses from they have to get permission and what not. The the lyric websites should be fine. However it would be interesting to see the legal stand point.

**blue-dreamer** · 10-10-2007, 06:29 AM

In general lyrics are copyrighted, they fall under the same as the song itsself (they are part of it!!!). If you wish to publish/use lyrics you need the consent of the copyright owner just the same as with any other copyrighted work.

I suppose most lyrics sites are technically in breach of law but as lyrics on their own don't sell CD's/MP3's it's not something high up on the copyright hot list.

**Galaxian** · 10-10-2007, 06:51 AM

Smooth.

Are there any publicly available mysql lyric databases? ^^

**swiftmed** · 10-10-2007, 05:57 PM

yeah they are copywrited, i dont think there would be an issue to having the lyrics printed online or even on paper, but if you was to use the lyrics to create your own song against different music or something, i think you would then be breaking the law....but dont quote me on that! i may be wrong

**Learning Newbie** · 10-10-2007, 06:25 PM

I think as long as you aren't profiting from them (like running ads on your site) you're ok.

**Galaxian** · 10-10-2007, 06:45 PM

Learning Newbie: There's alot of lyric sites with adverts and popups spammed all over the place... I'm unsure about these

**Learning Newbie** · 10-10-2007, 06:59 PM

They're probably making $0.35 a day but if one of the artists ever decides to sue, it will be an open and shut case. If I was gonna do it, I'd maybe post lyrics from Immortal Technique and Radiohead, because they're ok with that, but not from Metallica or Missy Elliot, because it's only a matter of time, they will sue.

In case you haven't been paying attention, the music industry is really big on sueing people. Personally I'd feel safer stealing from the maffia.

**NullPointer** · 10-10-2007, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

In case you haven't been paying attention, the music industry is really big on sueing people. Personally I'd feel safer stealing from the maffia.

Its true. The RIAA would ruin your life before they let you get away with a penny of their money (or money they felt should be theirs):
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/04/2232211

**Galaxian** · 10-11-2007, 04:28 AM

But the lyrics are just text telling the words of the song. Are you sure of this? I haven't seen any lyrics sites go down yet.

**hamesy** · 10-11-2007, 04:42 AM

Maybe another take on it is that a song is something physical and so can be copyrighted. While the lyrics cannot be copyrighted because they are just words.

I don't think you can copyright words, and if that’s the case then I'm going to copyright every word in the English dictionary and sue everyone that uses them

**Learning Newbie** · 10-11-2007, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamesy

I don't think you can copyright words, and if that’s the case then I'm going to copyright every word in the English dictionary and sue everyone that uses them

So you've never heard of a thing called books, huh?

Google Battles Book Copyrights

**Gx3 Grafix** · 10-11-2007, 12:46 PM

I found this on a site and it's a pretty popular one.

"AZLYRICS.COM - LYRICS COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

United States Copyright Law provides the copyright owner and/or their representative with the exclusive right to create, reproduce and distribute derivative works based on copyrighted material. Unless you have received permission from the copyright owner or their representative to distribute the lyrics from their songs, you are in violation of the law.

May 2003 - Azlyrics.com Team was contacted by one of the world's largest music print publisher "Hal Leonard Corporation", who exclusively control print rights for more than 6000 of the compositions listed on our website. Publisher demand us to cease and desist from offering these unauthorized lyrics for distribution via our website.

We had no choice but to remove all these lyrics from our site, otherwise AZLyrics.com would be closed."

**Galaxian** · 10-12-2007, 09:56 AM

Smooth.

At least the copyright holders politely asked for them to remove it instead of forceful means. I suspect this wouldn't be as much of a problem as distributing actual songs because it's only a textual interpretation of the song.

To be honest I think there are multiple arguments to support lyric sites if ever legally challenged, though the outcome is always an uncertainty given the strong force, persistence, and authority of the music copyright agencies.