Google’s Escape From Genius Lyrics Copying Suit Affirmed (1)

Google LLC rightly escaped a lawsuit from song transcription service Genius because the lyrics Genius claims Google copied are protected by copyrights that Genius doesn’t own, the Second Circuit said.

Nothing ML Genius Holdings LLC accused Google of doing in its unfair competition and breach of contract claims set the claims apart from copyright claims, which means the Copyright Act preempts them, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said.

The ruling indicates that, generally, transcriptions curated by anyone other than the copyright owner could be copied without permission of the curator. The entity making the copy of ...