US Supreme Court rejects Genius’ lawsuit accusing Google of stealing track lyrics

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to listen to a bid by web site Genius to revive its lawsuit accusing Alphabet’s Google of misusing its transcripts of track lyrics in search engine outcomes and not using a license.

The justices turned away an enchantment by Genius of a decrease court docket’s choice blocking its breach-of-contract claims in opposition to Google. Genius had argued {that a} win for Google may enable massive tech firms to steal content material with out repercussions from web sites resembling Reddit, eBay and Wikipedia that mixture user-created info.

Genius, previously often called Rap Genius, maintains an unlimited database of track lyrics. It sued Google in New York state court docket in 2019, accusing it of copying and posting its lyrics transcripts on the high of search outcomes with out permission, diverting internet visitors that ought to have gone to the Genius website.

Genius doesn’t maintain copyrights within the lyrics, which often belong to the artists or publishers. But it accused Google of violating its phrases of service by stealing and reposting its work.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda stated the corporate appreciated the Supreme Court’s choice.

“We license lyrics on Google Search from third parties, and we do not crawl or scrape websites to source lyrics,” Castaneda added.

Josh Rosenkranz, a lawyer for Genius, stated he and the corporate have been dissatisfied that the Supreme Court declined to take the case. Rosenkranz stated the decrease court docket’s choice “allows companies like Google to swallow up their competitors by misappropriating their content without any repercussions.”

The Genius lawsuit said that one of many first Google posts it suspected as copying concerned the lyrics for the track “Panda” by the rapper Desiigner.

“I got broads in Atlanta,” a part of the track’s lyrics learn. “Twistin’ dope, lean, and the Fanta. Credit cards and the scammers. Hittin’ off licks in the bando.”

Genius additionally cited songs by rapper Kendrick Lamar and pop singers Selena Gomez and Alessia Cara that it allegedly caught Google copying via the usage of watermarks.

It stated in its petition for Supreme Court overview that it included a particular sample of curly and straight apostrophes in transcriptions for some new songs that spelled out “RED HANDED” in Morse code.

“Sure enough, Genius caught Google with its hand in the cookie jar: The ‘RED HANDED’ message soon began to appear in the lyrics in Google’s information boxes,” Genius advised the justices.

The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 upheld a ruling that the Genius breach-of-contract claims have been based mostly on copyright considerations and might be pursued solely in a copyright lawsuit.

Google advised the excessive court docket that it holds licenses to the lyrics and argued that Genius needs to “ignore the true copyright owners and invent new rights through a purported contract.”

President Joe Biden’s administration really useful in May that the justices flip down the enchantment.