Remember all that talk about how soon it was going to be impossible to download music on the internet?
yeah…exactly
edit: I don’t even know who does more fear mongering lately, the traditional media or these techy sites like slashdot or pcpro or whatever. Note:
And more importantly, what’s next? Forbidding text editors because one might type copyrighted song lyrics?
Sure, maybe the ‘journalist’ was just quoting the nerdy guy who write this software, but come on…this is a ridiculous statement. It’s like they gave Wertigon a freaking journalist job or something. Everytime a big company goes to sue someone, IT’S THE END OF THE INTERNET AND ALL FREE SPEECH AS WE KNOW IT!!! Hell it wasn’t even a lawsuit, just a cease & decist order.
I just had this funny idea: someone should pick some EULA from a CD of one of these companies that bully people around in the intetnet. Then said someone would sing the EULA along (rap, trance, or whatever style the person likes), only removing the name of the company from the song. Then they should copyright the song.
And then, they could go into justice and have the company stop using the content of that EULA, for almost all of it is copyrighted material. A Cease & Desist order like this would be fun.
Yes, Atcually This post is at copyrighted by Ren (Your quotes) and Big Nutter (This). We both Let people, for exaple Madam Nulani Copy it with in reason. I should type this on Every post. “This post is free to Comment and/or copy either in full or otherwise.”
Most of the RPGC hangs on a few legalities, we are comenting on someone elses work, we are also at some times, Parodying it. RPGC could Colapse if Merlin or Rast or most of the Staff received several Cease and Disist Letters from the aproitate companies.
Thanks, Give me a week. But I’d May get in to troube I did the complete thing.
RPGC would not collapse, because we operate under the Fair Use rule - meaning that we’re not charging for it and we’re discussing it rather than copying it. I’m pretty confident we’d win in a court case. Not like we’re interested in going to court, of course.
What about poems that become lyrics, are they no longer enjoyable as just poems?
The problem is that most lyrics are part of a larger whole. The vast majority of them weren’t originally poems. In fact, a good portion of song lyrics, even from good songs, taken by themselves, sound almost asinine. It’s true that if someone managed to get the song lyrics online, they’d then no longer want to buy the poem, but that’s the problem of the poet, not the songwriter. (Unless they happen to be the same person, which is a really strange situation.)
Lyrics Dustup Ends in Apology
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.
"The goal of Warner/Chappell's prior letter to pearworks was to gain assurance that pearLyrics operated according to (copyright) principles. However, in both tone and substance, that letter was an inappropriate manner in which to convey that inquiry. Warner/Chappell apologizes to Walter Ritter and pearworks."
Ritter says he hopes that talks with Warner will result in its return to the web.
The apology is a rare reversal for a copyright holder in the war against illicit trading of music and other files. Legal assaults against file-swapping services and individuals accused of stealing music en masse have led some companies to close their doors, and alleged copyright infringers to pay out thousands of dollars in settlements.
The standoff began after Ritter created pearLyrics in his spare time while working as a usability researcher at the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences in Austria.
Thousands downloaded the program, and Apple Computer linked to it from Apple.com. But in early December, Ritter received a letter from Warner Chappell comparing the tool to Grokster and file-sharing networks that distribute copyright material without permission. The music publisher threatened legal action if the distribution of pearLyrics did not cease.
"I was surprised," Ritter told Wired News. "I couldn't believe it and I thought they must be misinterpreting what pearLyrics does -- that we must be hosting or distributing lyrics and making money from it. But I didn't want to risk a trial, so I took it down."
Apple was copied on the same threatening letter, and promptly removed its link to Ritter's software. But others rallied to Ritter's defense.
On Dec. 13, attorney Fred Von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation published an open letter criticizing the company for its threat.
"A lot of people buy music from iTunes and make copies of CDs for personal use," Von Lohmann told Wired News, "Annotating music they acquire isn't wrong. If music fans aren't doing anything wrong, then how can it be unlawful to develop an application that helps them?"
Ritter says Warner Chappell is now talking with him about ways to create lyrics search tools with the blessing of music publishers, but the experience will cause him to think twice before committing his next big idea to code.
One of Ritter's recent brainstorms -- an application that queries lyrics data online to help music fans choose tracks based on themes, like "love" or "breakup" -- may now remain only an idea, he says.
"I'm concerned with how I should go on with software development, because this will be a potential issue -- every time I come up with something that people like, someone might say 'you can't do that, it's illegal and it infringes copyright," Ritter told Wired News. "It's getting really difficult to be innovative as a small developer."
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, according to MPA CEO Lauren Keiser.
"Lost revenue for rights holders is in the millions," said Keiser, "We're not going after fan clubs, but websites that make money."
(…)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, according to MPA CEO Lauren Keiser.
“Lost revenue for rights holders is in the millions,” said Keiser, “We’re not going after fan clubs, but websites that make money.”
This is still stupid. Yep, said sites that display lyrics are making money through adware, but is Warner Chappel going to compete with them? So we’ll be forced to see advertising if we want legalized lyrics? Wouldn’t this outrule browsing their site with anti-ad tools like @-Guard?
No you have it backwards. He said that he is going after sites that make a profit by publishing lyrics, not sites that provide a service without producing a profit through ads. This also includes not going after programs like the iTunes program that searches lyrics but does not force the user to see ads. Lyrics ARE copyrighted material. Granted, I think it’s silly to go after any site for any reason, but making a profit off of copyrighted material is at least a legitimate, if not a silly reason for pursuing them.