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Music Media CDA Government The Courts News

Song Sites Face Legal Crackdown 537

CaptainPotato writes "According to the BBC, the Music Publishers' Association is stepping up to launch the next phase in the music industry's battle against online music. The MPA is demanding jail time for the maintainers of websites offering unlicensed song scores and lyrics. The MPA President has stated that closing websites and imposing fines is not enough, stating that by 'throw [ing]in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective' in its crusade." We just recently reported on the pearLyrics cease-and-desist order as well.
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Song Sites Face Legal Crackdown

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:11AM (#14218871)
    ...only outlaws will sing.
  • by Vengeance ( 46019 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:11AM (#14218879)
    Who in the HELL ever buys sheet music for lyrics?

    Anyone?

    Bueller?

    Didn't think so.
  • by SisyphusShrugged ( 728028 ) <meNO@SPAMigerard.com> on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:12AM (#14218890) Homepage
    Talk about lawsuit happy...can there really be that much money in song lyrics and sheet music?!?

    Reminds me of that South Park episode, "Now Britney wont be able to buy her third caribbean island, all because of you evil children and your selfish downloading of music!"

    I am absolutely certain there is a special ring of hell reserved for these RIAA goons and their SCO-like tactics.
  • by MarcoPon ( 689115 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:12AM (#14218897) Homepage
    It seems that they are in a quest to prove everyday to the world that they are even more stupid than previously supposed to be.
  • hmm.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by somersault ( 912633 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:14AM (#14218911) Homepage Journal
    I wonder why suicide is on the rise.. surely the world is always becoming a better place?
  • by digitaldc ( 879047 ) * on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:14AM (#14218914)
    Great, now people will be writing about Jimi Hendrix singing "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy" in Purple Haze and Creedence Clearwater Revival singing "There's a bathroom on the right" in 'Bad Moon Rising'
  • by squoozer ( 730327 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:17AM (#14218948)

    Why didn't he just come out and say what he really wanted to say:

    "Just prison time! That's not enough! These low life scum deserve nothing more than to be stoned to death (women aren't allowed to partake in the stoning, of course). They have stolen food from the mouths of hungry little children and strangled kittens. Well they would strangle kittens if they could. There probably terrorists as well you know!"

    Will common sense ever return to the world? I think not with people like this running things.

  • by Moby Cock ( 771358 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:19AM (#14218966) Homepage
    I am absolutely certain there is a special ring of hell reserved for these RIAA goons and their SCO-like tactics.

    It spins them right round, baby, right round, like a record, baby, right round, round, round.

    Aaaahhhhh! Illegal lyrics, Slashdot is doomed!
  • by Vokkyt ( 739289 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:20AM (#14218978)
    cause it will have lyrics from Bohemian Rhapsody in it...which is seemingly appropriate in my mind.

    Is this the real life- Is this just fantasy-
    Caught in a landslide-
    No escape from reality-
    Open your eyes
    Look up to the skies and see-
    I'm just a poor boy,i need no sympathy-
    Because I'm easy come,easy go,
    A little high,little low,
    Anyway the wind blows,doesn't really matter to me,
    To me

    Mama,just killed a man,
    Put a gun against his head,
    Pulled my trigger,now he's dead,
    Mama,life had just begun,
    But now I've gone and thrown it all away-
    Mama ooo,
    Didn't mean to make you cry-
    If I'm not back again this time tomorrow-
    Carry on,carry on,as if nothing really matters-

    Too late,my time has come,
    Sends shivers down my spine-
    Body's aching all the time,
    Goodbye everybody-I've got to go-
    Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth-
    Mama ooo- (any way the wind blows)
    I don't want to die,
    I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all-

    I see a little silhouetto of a man,
    Scaramouche,scaramouche will you do the fandango-
    Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me-
    Galileo,galileo,
    Galileo galileo
    Galileo figaro-magnifico-
    But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me-
    He's just a poor boy from a poor family-
    Spare him his life from this monstrosity-
    Easy come easy go-,will you let me go-
    Bismillah! no-,we will not let you go-let him go-
    Bismillah! we will not let you go-let him go
    Bismillah! we will not let you go-let me go
    Will not let you go-let me go
    Will not let you go let me go
    No,no,no,no,no,no,no-
    Mama mia,mama mia,mama mia let me go-
    Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me,for me,for me-

    So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye-
    So you think you can love me and leave me to die-
    Oh baby-can't do this to me baby-
    Just gotta get out-just gotta get right outta here-

    Nothing really matters,
    Anyone can see,
    Nothing really matters-,nothing really matters to me,

    Any way the wind blows....

  • Make Room (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dareth ( 47614 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:24AM (#14219017)
    I guess we need to make room in the jails.

    The MPA is demanding jail time for the maintainers of websites offering unlicensed song scores and lyrics.

    Time to let all the copyright honoring murderers out of jail to make room. After all, the people they killed probably illegally downloaded music!

    Society knows who the "real criminals" are.
  • by beaversoc ( 835028 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:24AM (#14219025)
    Shit I just thought a set of Lyrics, Dammit agian. Off to get a alumnium foil Hat and hide
  • by Aceticon ( 140883 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:25AM (#14219033)
    This reminds me of something a virtual radio commentator that you hear when playing a recent game says:

    "Remember, you shouldn't wistle the tunes you hear on the radio because it breaks the author's copyright. Wistling is killing the music industry!"
  • by Zocalo ( 252965 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:27AM (#14219047) Homepage
    I am absolutely certain there is a special ring of hell reserved for these RIAA goons and their SCO-like tactics.

    I hope so, because if they get their way then that will be the only way future listeners of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" will have of finding out whether Bealzebub really does have a devil for a sideboard...

  • by Vengeance ( 46019 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:28AM (#14219064)
    Hehe. Being a native speaker of English doesn't necessarily mean that one can understand the lyrics for any given song!
  • by jolyonr ( 560227 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:31AM (#14219108) Homepage
    So here, for your illegal enjoyment, are the lyrics for Daft Punk's track 'Around the World', encoded in a C style language for your benefit.

    for(i=0;i<143;i++)
    {
    printf("Around the World\r\n");
    }

    Jolyon

    Am I an illegal now?
  • by JudgeFurious ( 455868 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:34AM (#14219137)
    Downloading your free music and dooming these entertainers to lives of only semi-luxury. How do you sleep at night mister?
  • by dpilot ( 134227 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @10:43AM (#14219237) Homepage Journal
    Just keep in mind that EVERY TIME someone goes to a place like Lyrics World to find the words to a song, that's revenue deprived of some poor, starving songwriter. That's because EVERY TIME someone wanted those words to a song, if places like Lyrics World hadn't existed, they would have hopped right into the car and driven to their local music (not Record/Tape/CD) store to buy a copy of the sheet music. There's NO SUCH THING as casually wondering what the words to a song are - there's only thieving and conniving to deprive starving songwriters of the ability to feed their poor children.

    Clearly this move is going to enhance my enjoyment of music, and make me want to buy more.
  • Re:Man..... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Iriel ( 810009 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @11:00AM (#14219427) Homepage
    (Warning: What you are about to read is purely sarcastic...except for where it isn't)

    Actually, the Recording Industry A**holes of America have struck gold this time! Do you have any idea how many times I have grown to hate a perfectly good song because some tone deaf moron could just look up the lyrics and try to imitate Brittney Spears? I can't tell you how much it grates my nerves to hear the greatest songs of our generation being brutalized by people just because they know the words!

    Now, the RIAA can keep everyone in the dark so everyone can just sit and listen peacefully without being forced to endure someone's immitation of scratching their nails across a chalkboard. An experience that would otherwise be followed by them asking you if they should go on American Idol. Next, artists will be sued for publishing their lyrics as well so there will be no distractions between their corporate mind sex attempting to portray society/culture and my ears.

    Oh happy days!
  • I gotta say that sounds more like you listen to a lot of porn... ;)
  • by anarchyboy ( 720565 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @11:18AM (#14219595)
    And then play pinball?
  • Re:Man..... (Score:2, Funny)

    by jimbolauski ( 882977 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @11:27AM (#14219683) Journal
    I think what the MPA wants a piece of the karaoke money. This is possibly the only way to make money off the words of songs. I for one would be glad if karaoke would die because of this. When I'm drowning my sorrows at the local water hole the last thing i want to hear is an off tune drunken idiot.
  • by Vengeance ( 46019 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @11:29AM (#14219712)
    Oooh, so technically, deciphering lyrics is a DMCA violation, too!
  • Re:Man..... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09, 2005 @11:34AM (#14219773)
    Damn! they've finally caught on the my scheme! All this time I avoided the Kazaa controversy by downloading illegal sheet-music and having some local band play it for me while I record it! There goes my free music :(
  • Re:Man..... (Score:5, Funny)

    by FuzzyBad-Mofo ( 184327 ) * <fuzzybad@nOSPAm.gmail.com> on Friday December 09, 2005 @11:41AM (#14219846)

    My highschool made me BRAKE THE LAW!

    I guess they didn't realize what was at steak..

  • Re:Man..... (Score:3, Funny)

    by idunno2112 ( 852110 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @11:52AM (#14219966)
    BREAKING NEWS: Sony unveils perfect DRM

    All new releases are simply "BEEEEEP" for 74 minutes, censoring the lyrics and music so nobody can copy the artist's, er, record company's intellectual property in any way, shape or form.
  • Important article from The Onion:

    http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43029/ [theonion.com] RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs

    LOS ANGELES--The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that it will be taking legal action against anyone discovered telling friends, acquaintances, or associates about new songs, artists, or albums. "We are merely exercising our right to defend our intellectual properties from unauthorized peer-to-peer notification of the existence of copyrighted material," a press release signed by RIAA anti-piracy director Brad Buckles read. "We will aggressively prosecute those individuals who attempt to pirate our property by generating 'buzz' about any proprietary music, movies, or software, or enjoy same in the company of anyone other than themselves." RIAA attorneys said they were also looking into the legality of word-of-mouth "favorites-sharing" sites, such as coffee shops, universities, and living rooms.

  • by Spackler ( 223562 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @12:06PM (#14220083) Journal
    he rationalized that the answer would be at www.nameofthatthing.com - in this case www.spider.com. So he typed that in... and suffice it to say, what he got had little to do with spiders.

    It was a goth porn site. The main page was some chick with her tits out, nothing more than he'd seen on national geographic, but it made him really mad for some reason.


    It made me mad to. It is now some business. No goth tits. Thanks for nothing dirtbag.

  • by jolyonr ( 560227 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @12:50PM (#14220563) Homepage
    I have the extended 12" edition!

    Jolyon
  • by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Friday December 09, 2005 @01:08PM (#14220751)
    I agree. Every time I have looked up lyrics (maybe seven or eight so far) I would have gladly paid 3 million dollars for them. So my acts have already cost them 21 to 24 million dollars.

    The level of remorse I am feeling cannot be described with words. Jail time isn't what I deserve, I should probably just be shot or forced into indentured servitude or slavery. That would put a stop to my larcenous behavior.

Ya'll hear about the geometer who went to the beach to catch some rays and became a tangent ?

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