The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has sent takedown notices to 50 different websites on the basis of lyrical copyright infringement. The NMPA has asked that the websites pay for the rights to use the lyrics or take them offline indefinitely.
Legally, they are in the right. It is well established in many jurisdictions, including the UK and the US, that the right to duplicate any part of the song, including the lyrics of the song, belongs to the copyright holder. This is the heart of copyright lawThat being said, there are limitations which prevent even the most litigious of associations from filing a claim for every single type of infringement. Most of these limitations come under the banner of “fair use”.
When determining whether or not an infringement falls under this doctrine a number of different factors are considered. One of which is the purpose of the infringement; if the intellectual property is copied for certain purposes such as a review or education, it will most likely not give rise to a successful claim.
I, by no means am a legal expert (just a student who was given a great opportunity), but I suppose it could be argued that the certain websites display lyrics for educational purposes. A website that immediately jumps to mind as potentially falling into this category is RapGenius.
RapGenius is a very popular website which displays lyrics from various different rap songs (although recently it has diversified by displaying lyrics from other songs as well). Rapgenius was among the fifty websites which were sent a takedown notice by the NMPA, and probably the one that caused the most controversy. What makes Rapgenius so unique is that it does not merely display the lyrics, but also annotates them to provide a deep analysis of the lyrics. Hence the reason why it may fall under the fair use banner.
However, it should be minded that uploading the entirety of the lyrics is probably not proportionate to the aim of providing a deep analysis of the song. It could be argued that a sufficient analysis could be made by simply taking select quotes or directing the reader to specific parts of the songs for reference.
What exactly is to come of these takedown notices remains to be seen. However, it seems as though Rapgenius is not willing to battle with the music industry in the courtroom. They have already signed a licensing agreement with Sony, and it would not be surprising if more were to follow.
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2013/11/12/the-music-industry-is-going-after-rap-genius-and-the-law-is-on-their-side/
http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/73851
