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NMPA sues two lyric websites

By | Published on Thursday 22 May 2014

NMPA

The US music publishing sector’s trade group, the National Music Publishers Association, has confirmed it has begun legal action against two lyric websites which it says continue to prolifically publish lyrics without licence.

Although the online distribution of lyrics online without licences from the music publishers has been an issue for years, the NMPA has ramped up its efforts in this regard of late, targeting in particular those entities that seem to have built pretty good ad-funded businesses around their copyright infringing websites.

Rap Genius was high on the target list last year, but it has subsequently started doing deals with the US publishers, including the NMPA itself. But similar efforts to do deals with some of the other lyric sites have not gone so well, resulting in the litigation against SeekLyrics.com and LyricsTime.com.

Confirming his organisation was now going legal against these two sites, NMPA President David Israelite told reporters: “Litigation is a last step. Our goal is to insure that lyric sites and songwriters become partners through licensing. This is not a campaign against personal blogs, fan sites, or the many websites that provide lyrics legally. We are targeting sites that engage in blatant illegal behavior, which impacts a songwriter’s ability to make a living”.



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