Genius Says It Caught Google, LyricFind "Redhanded" Stealing Lyrics in $50M Suit
Genius Says It Caught
Google, LyricFind "Redhanded" Stealing Lyrics in $50M Suit
DECEMBER 03, 2019 4:01pm PT
by Ashley Cullins
The music lyrics site used a
digital watermark to see if other sites were copying its product — and it
spelled "redhanded" in Morse code.
Lyrics site Genius on
Tuesday sued Google and LyricFind for $50 million, alleging they have been
misappropriating its transcriptions for years.
The site became suspicious
after noticing lyrics to Desiigner's 2016 hit "Panda" that appeared
in a Google search results box matched its transcription
character-for-character. After the discovery, Genius implemented a watermark using
variations of apostrophes in its lyrics.
"Genius set the 2nd,
5th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 20th apostrophes of each watermarked song as curly
apostrophes, and all the other apostrophes straight," states the
complaint. "If the straight apostrophes are interpreted as dots and the
curly apostrophes are interpreted as dashes, the pattern spells out 'REDHANDED'
in Morse code."
For months, Genius monitored
Google results looking for the watermark. In May 2017, it contacted the tech
giant explaining the watermark and using Kendrick Lamar's "PRIDE" as
an example. The company asserts multiple Google execs claimed they were looking
into the issue but never offered an explanation.
People commonly assume music
lyrics are provided to sites like Genius by publishers or labels, according to
the complaint, but that's usually not the case. The company relies on
"music enthusiasts" to transcribe the works, or obtains them from the
artists themselves, and gets a license from the publisher to display and
distribute them. Genius then licenses its lyrics database to companies
including Apple.
"Lyrics transcription
is an arduous task that often requires genre experts to repeatedly listen to
songs in order to produce accurate transcriptions," states the complaint.
"Genius has invested ten years and tens of millions of dollars to build
the technology and community that supports collaborative lyrics transcription.
The high quality and ready availability of lyrics on Genius are a direct result
of this technology and Genius’s engaged community of users."
Genius not only claims
Google is using stolen lyrics, it also alleges the site makes it difficult for
users to access organic search results.
Google revamped its site in
late 2014 to expand the information box that appears at the top of search
results and include lyrics, according to the complaint. When a user googles
"Lose You to Love Me" lyrics, for example, Genius says the box
displays them in full and a user has to scroll down past Google-owned products
like YouTube and Google Play before arriving at organic results like the Genius
site.
"In other words, in the
competition for users on the internet, Google has designed its lyrics
Information Box in a way that discourages users from seeking another result,
and, in many cases, directs them toward other revenue-generating Google
products," states the complaint.
From October through
December 2018, Genius stepped up its watermark test and searched its lyrics
every day. It found clear evidence of copying in 116 of the 301 songs it
tested, according to the complaint.
In April of this year,
Genius approached Google again and the tech giant identified LyricFind as the
source of the lyrics at issue. So Genius sent LyricFind a cease-and-desist
order. Nothing changed until after The Wall Street Journal published a story
about the alleged lyric lifting. After that, Genius says, its watermarked
product disappeared from the information box results.
The company then devised a
new watermark using spaces — one that spells "genius" in Morse code.
Genius did another round of analysis and estimates 40 percent of lyrics from
new music displayed in the information box were misappropriated from its site.Genius is suing Google and
LyricFind for breach of contract, alleging they would have had to agree to the
site's terms of service in order to access the lyrics and that contract
prohibits commercial use. Genius is also suing both companies for violations of
California and New York state unfair competition laws and unjust enrichment.
When asked for comment on
the complaint, which is posted below, Google directed The Hollywood Reporter to
a June blog post. In it, the tech giant says it licenses lyrics from a third
party and asked its lyrics partner to investigate the claims. LyricFind also
posted a June blog entry in response to the accusations, explaining its team
often starts with existing lyrics and then corrects them and instructed its
workers to not use Genius as a source after the cease-and-desist was sent.
LyricFind CEO Darryl
Ballantyne on Tuesday sent THR a comment. "We have not had any contact
with Genius since June, and in fact, have not even been served with the
complaint," he says. "From what we're reading online, it is
completely frivolous and without merit."
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