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.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
imprisonment on probation
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
what's good for the goose....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: what's good for the goose....
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: what's good for the goose....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: what's good for the goose....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
pissing off the French!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]