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The National Music Publishers Association has sent take-down notices to 50 lyrics sites, including Rap Genius.
The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) sent 50 sites take-down notices today (November 11) requesting lyrics sites to either obtain licenses to publish lyrics or remove copyright lyrics from their sites, according to billboard.com.
RapGenius.com, which added Nas as an advisor in 2012, was among the sites targeted by the NMPA, according to the story, even though Rap Genius Co-Founder Ilan Zechory said his company had not heard from the NMPA, as per billboard.com.
David Israelite, Chief Executive of the NMPA, said to billboard.com that his organization is targeting commercial websites.
"This is not a campaign against personal blogs, fan sites, or the many websites that provide lyrics legally," Israelite said. The NMPA "is targeting 50 sites that engage in blatant illegal behavior," he said.
Israelite said that the take-down notices are a precursor to filing copyright infringement lawsuits against the sites, something that would likely be done if they were to continue to publish song lyrics that they don't have the licenses to, billboard.com says.
NMPA has had success in similar legal cases. Last year, the NMPA, on behalf of Warner Chappell Music, Peermusic and Bug Music, won a $6.6 million judgement against LiveUniverse, a company that operated unlicensed lyrics sites, as per billboard.com. In 2010, the NMPA also sued and won a suit against Motive Force, a company that operated LyricWiki. NMPA received an undisclosed amount of "funds associated with the exploitation of the unauthorized content," billboard.com's story says.
The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) sent 50 sites take-down notices today (November 11) requesting lyrics sites to either obtain licenses to publish lyrics or remove copyright lyrics from their sites, according to billboard.com.
RapGenius.com, which added Nas as an advisor in 2012, was among the sites targeted by the NMPA, according to the story, even though Rap Genius Co-Founder Ilan Zechory said his company had not heard from the NMPA, as per billboard.com.
David Israelite, Chief Executive of the NMPA, said to billboard.com that his organization is targeting commercial websites.
"This is not a campaign against personal blogs, fan sites, or the many websites that provide lyrics legally," Israelite said. The NMPA "is targeting 50 sites that engage in blatant illegal behavior," he said.
Israelite said that the take-down notices are a precursor to filing copyright infringement lawsuits against the sites, something that would likely be done if they were to continue to publish song lyrics that they don't have the licenses to, billboard.com says.
NMPA has had success in similar legal cases. Last year, the NMPA, on behalf of Warner Chappell Music, Peermusic and Bug Music, won a $6.6 million judgement against LiveUniverse, a company that operated unlicensed lyrics sites, as per billboard.com. In 2010, the NMPA also sued and won a suit against Motive Force, a company that operated LyricWiki. NMPA received an undisclosed amount of "funds associated with the exploitation of the unauthorized content," billboard.com's story says.
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