Music giants bear down on lyric search apps and sites

[mandy]

Several developers of Mac software that search the Web for song lyrics have been issued with cease and desist orders by one of the big four record companies.

Walter Ritter, author of the pearLyrics application and widget that automatically searches the Web for song lyrics and adds them to the lyrics field in iTunes, said that he had been contacted by Warner/Chappell Music and asked to remove the software or face legal action....

This latest move, which has also resulted in the disappearance from Apple's Dashboard pages of most of the lyrics widgets, is thought to be part of a wider campaign to prevent the publication and distribution of lyrics on the Internet.

full article: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/81101/music-...-apps.html

[Nat]

But I like looking for lyrics of songs so that I can sing along with my tunes.  Party poopers.

[rose]

The record companies need to accept  that new technologies haves made their existing revenue models obsolete and adjust accodingly.  Clinging to the past and alienating the fans won't work for long.

[Kristijntje]

Crack down to begin in 2006.  Music publishing industry calling for jail time for site owners.

The music industry is to extend its copyright war by taking legal action against websites offering unlicensed song scores and lyrics.

The Music Publishers' Association (MPA), which represents US sheet music companies, will launch its first campaign against such sites in 2006.

MPA president Lauren Keiser said he wanted site owners to be jailed.

He said unlicensed guitar tabs and song scores were widely available on the internet but were "completely illegal".

full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4508158.stm

[mandy]

A music publisher has issued an unusual mea culpa in the digital copyright wars, apologizing over legal threats that led a software programmer to pull an application he'd written that automatically scours the web for song lyrics.

Facing an upswell of protest, Warner Chappell Music on Friday formally apologized to Walter Ritter over a letter it sent to the software programmer earlier this month targeting a helper application for Apple's iTunes called pearLyrics.

...While Ritter now appears to be free of legal woes, ad-laden websites that offer unlicensed lyrics and guitar tabs will soon be under attack.

Beginning in January, the Music Publishers Association, of which Warner Chappell is a member, will begin pursuing a campaign against 5 to 6 such companies...

full article: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,69856,00.html

An online sheet music retailer's take on the MPA's stance:

Action on song lyric websites is misguided

The MPA action, contrary to its claims, is not proactive. If it were, the MPA would be promoting and supporting the legal music sites currently operating instead of waving jail terms at their adversaries. And following hot on the heels of a questionable cease and desist action by Warner Chappell against a lyrics search tool, the MPA opens itself up to the criticism being targeted already at the big music companies and the Recording Industry Association of America, albeit for completely difference reasons.

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/19/..._websites/