Rap Genius Says It Will Seek Licenses for Lyrics; New York Times, 11/14/13

Ben Sisario, New York Times; Rap Genius Says It Will Seek Licenses for Lyrics: "Rap Genius, a website that was accused by music publishers on Monday of reprinting thousands of song lyrics without permission, revealed that it had a major licensing deal all along — and also indicated that the site was likely to pursue more such deals in the future rather than fight with publishers over copyright. The site, which publishes detailed annotations of rap lyrics, was listed as the top offender of what the National Music Publishers’ Association, a trade group, called “blatant illegal behavior” by using lyrics without licenses from music publishers, which control songwriting copyrights. A favorite of fans and journalists alike, Rap Genius was by far the most prominent of the 50 sites identified by the trade group (most of the others had formulaic-sounding names like lyricsmania.com and lyricstranslate.com)."