Google contractually bound itself to those terms, but, in blatant breach of that contract, Google stole Genius's labors for its own competing commercial purposes." "These terms include the promise not to reproduce the contents of Genius's platform. "Like countless Internet businesses, Genius-an online platform for transcribing and annotating song lyrics-insists that visitors agree to its contractual terms as a condition for availing themselves of the benefit of its services," the company told the Supreme Court. In its August 2022 petition to the Supreme Court, Genius argued that the Copyright Act shouldn't override its claim that Google breached a contract. Genius alleged that LyricFind copied Genius transcriptions and licensed them to Google.īrodie found that Genius' claim must fail even if one accepts the argument that it "added a separate and distinct value to the lyrics by transcribing them such that the lyrics are essentially derivative works." Since Genius "does not allege that it received an assignment of the copyright owners' rights in the lyrics displayed on its website, Plaintiff's claim is preempted by the Copyright Act because, at its core, it is a claim that Defendants created an unauthorized reproduction of Plaintiff's derivative work, which is itself conduct that violates an exclusive right of the copyright owner under federal copyright law," Brodie wrote. Google search results routinely display song lyrics via the service LyricFind. Plaintiff likely makes this argument without explicitly referring to the lyrics transcriptions as derivative works because the case law is clear that only the original copyright owner has exclusive rights to authorize derivative works," Brodie wrote in the August 2020 ruling. "Plaintiff's argument is, in essence, that it has created a derivative work of the original lyrics in applying its own labor and resources to transcribe the lyrics, and thus, retains some ownership over and has rights in the transcriptions distinct from the exclusive rights of the copyright owners. The appeals court upheld the ruling in March 2022. In August 2020, US District Judge Margo Brodie ruled that Genius' claim is preempted by the US Copyright Act. Genius previously lost rulings in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The top US court denied Genius' petition for certiorari in an order list issued today, leaving in place lower-court rulings that went in Google's favor. The song lyrics website Genius' allegations that Google "stole" its work in violation of a contract will not be heard by the US Supreme Court. Getty Images | BushAlex reader comments 137 with
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