Online Music Wars Take New Turn
“The manner in which the industry has reacted to technological change in the past seven years shows that the people running these companies clearly have their heads in the sand, and some of their actions reek of stupidity and unadulterated greed,” said Jarad Carleton, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
The fight over online music piracy has become a war of words following the Music Publisher Association’s (MPA) announcement that it will begin playing legal hard ball with Web sites that provide access to unlicensed lyrics and sheet music.
The MPA, the oldest music trade organization in the country, represents some of the leading players among the nation’s 26,000 music publishers. The nonprofit said it will begin issuing takedown notices to lyric sites in January.
In a BBC News interview, MPA president Lauren Keiser said his goal is not just to shut down the sites and levy fines, but also to get authorities to “throw in some jail time,” which he believes will make the group’s campaign “a little more effective.”
Lyrically Misunderstood
While purveyors of lyrics online, such as lyricfreaks.com and lyricsfree.com, might altruistically think they are performing a much-needed service, in reality without any formal agreement with the entity that owns the rights to the lyrics, they are as guilty of copyright infringement as a site offering pirated music.
Many site owners were unaware that they were in violation of copyright laws until they received cease-and-desist letters from the publishing division of Warner Music last week.
According to Keiser, owners of fan sites featuring lyrics need not worry about finding themselves on the business end of a cease-and-desist letter. The MPA is taking action on the large lyric disseminators. The whole business model of those sites, Kieser said, “is based on exploiting copyrighted material that they do not have the rights to.”
Music publishers claim that until the Internet, Xerox (NYSE: XRX) machines were the greatest threat to a songwriter’s income. However, the existence of thousands of sites providing lyrics, sheet music, and tabs without paying royalties on them have greatly impinged on the songwriter’s earnings.
“Unauthorized use of lyrics and tablature deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing,” David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers’ Association, told the BBC News. “Music publishers and songwriters will consider all tools under the law to stop this illegal behavior.”
Sing Along
Online music providers argue, however, that obtaining the rights to lyrics is not as simple as just writing a check. They say it often is unclear what company owns the rights to a song. And with thousands of music publishers in business, the process of obtaining a legal copyright becomes even murkier.
Added to the confusion over ownership is the apparent support of the unauthorized lyric sites by popular services in the music-download industry. Apple’s iTunes, for example, connects users to several free lyrics widgets.
Widgets are small applications that run on a computer desktop and provide quick access to Web-based information, such as stock quotes, sports scores, and weather. One such widget, pearLyrics, created by Walter Ritter, was shut down last week after Ritter received a cease-and-desist letter from music publisher Warner Chappell’s UK office.
According to Ritter, the widget, which searched for matching lyrics during song playback through iTunes, was “a specialized Web browser with built-in search capability for publicly available lyrics on the Internet.” Legal experts explain that Ritter’s widget would run afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as well as the recent Supreme Court decision about Grokster, which found that companies that promote copyright violations could be liable for contributory infringement.
ITunes users still can access other lyrics widgets, such as Sing that iTune, through a listing on Apple’s Web site. A disclaimer at the bottom of the widget page stipulates that “Apple is providing links to these applications as a courtesy, and makes no representations regarding the applications or any information related thereto.”
Technophobia or Good Business?
The MPA’s decision inserts songwriters into a war the recording labels and many recording artists have been waging against sites providing illegal downloads of copyrighted music. As has been the case at each escalation in this legal brouhaha, industry analysts wonder whether the MPA does not risk alienating music lovers by overreacting to new technologies.
“This is clearly analogous to the music industry seeing an infection on the toe and deciding that the entire leg must be amputated to save the patient,” said Jarad Carleton, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
According to Carleton, the MPA risks alienating legions of music lovers who frequently have no other way to obtain lyrics of their favorite songs. Often, he noted, lyrics are not included on the CD insert and the only way to find them is on the Web. Carleton said the problem the recording industry is experiencing with copyright infringement is a reflection of the industry’s executives’ inability to adapt their business models and take advantage of technology.
“I’d have to describe the music industry as a business that is led by executives who cling to old business models that no longer work, who are afraid of technology, and who try to avoid [technology] rather than embrace it and make it work to their advantage,” Carleton said.
“The manner in which the industry has reacted to technological change in the past seven years shows that the people running these companies clearly have their heads in the sand, and some of their actions reek of stupidity and unadulterated greed,” Carleton added.