Genius.com, a song lyrics website, has lost its million-dollar lawsuit against Lyricfind and Google. The lawsuit was filed after Genius discovered that its search engine displayed lyrics copied from the Genius website, complete with hidden markings. Genius saw a significant drop in website traffic following this discovery. However, self-service of third-party content is not prohibited under US law, unlike in the European Union. After three defeats in US courts, the Supreme Court declined to review the case. Genius.com is a website that provides song lyrics, and its users have painstakingly written down the lyrics themselves. Genius caught Google displaying these lyrics, including the watermark, directly in the search engine. Google removed the watermarks after a complaint, but Genius had hidden other secret characters that still appeared in the copied lyrics. Google claims to have licensed the texts from Lyricfind and denies any wrongdoing. Since Genius does not own the copyright to the lyrics, it cannot claim copyright infringement. In the EU, there is a protection for investments in databases, but no such protection exists in the USA. Genius initially sued Lyricfind and Google in a New York state court, but the case was moved to federal court. The federal district court dismissed the lawsuit, stating that Genius made no legal allegations. The lawsuit was Genius’ second defeat. Genius appealed, but the federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit quickly rejected the appeal. The court determined that the content in question was lyrics, not the effort put in by Genius and its users. As a result, Genius’s claims were comparable to typical copyright exclusion rights, but it was not allowed to raise these claims. This was Genius’s third defeat. The company then sought help from the US Supreme Court, but it declined to hear the case. Genius must now accept that third parties can copy and publish its users’ lyrics without consequence. Three years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that US states can violate copyright without facing legal repercussions. Overall, this case highlights the limitations of copyright protection in the US and the challenges faced by content creators in protecting their work.
