After being dismissed by a lower court, music database Genius may have its claim against Google heard by the US Supreme Court.
The lawsuit — which claims that Google illegally copies lyrics and annotations made by Genius to its search results — was originally dismissed in March. Now, an order made on Monday (December 12) by Supreme Court justices asks the US Solicitor General to file briefs in the case "expressing the views of the United States."
As per reporting by Billboard, this type of request implies that the justices think this may be a significant enough case to bring to the Supreme Court.
The original lawsuit filed in 2019 claims that Google stole Genius' transcribed lyrics for its search results' "information boxes." The case was originally thrown out by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as Genius doesn't own the copyright to its transcripted lyrics. The Court argued that only the songwriters or publishers of songs featured on Genius could file such a suit considering how close to a copyright claim it looked.
At the time, Genius argued that websites that put effort into aggregated content should be able to protect said content regardless of copyrights. "It serves no public purpose … to bar these companies from enforcing their contracts so that behemoths like Google can vacuum up content and increase their internet dominance," the company said.
Google's lawyers, on the other hand, called Genius' argument "alarmist hyperbole." They wrote, "Genius does not own the copyrights to any of the lyrics. Genius nevertheless wants to prevent any website visitor from reproducing or publicly displaying the lyrics. Its solution? Ignore the true copyright owners and invent new rights through a purported contract."
While Google claims the case is not worth being brought to the Supreme Court, Genius has vehemently defended its viewpoint — even going as far as to use its transcriptions to spell out "REDHANDED" in secret code to attempt to prove Google's guilt.
The lawsuit — which claims that Google illegally copies lyrics and annotations made by Genius to its search results — was originally dismissed in March. Now, an order made on Monday (December 12) by Supreme Court justices asks the US Solicitor General to file briefs in the case "expressing the views of the United States."
As per reporting by Billboard, this type of request implies that the justices think this may be a significant enough case to bring to the Supreme Court.
The original lawsuit filed in 2019 claims that Google stole Genius' transcribed lyrics for its search results' "information boxes." The case was originally thrown out by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as Genius doesn't own the copyright to its transcripted lyrics. The Court argued that only the songwriters or publishers of songs featured on Genius could file such a suit considering how close to a copyright claim it looked.
At the time, Genius argued that websites that put effort into aggregated content should be able to protect said content regardless of copyrights. "It serves no public purpose … to bar these companies from enforcing their contracts so that behemoths like Google can vacuum up content and increase their internet dominance," the company said.
Google's lawyers, on the other hand, called Genius' argument "alarmist hyperbole." They wrote, "Genius does not own the copyrights to any of the lyrics. Genius nevertheless wants to prevent any website visitor from reproducing or publicly displaying the lyrics. Its solution? Ignore the true copyright owners and invent new rights through a purported contract."
While Google claims the case is not worth being brought to the Supreme Court, Genius has vehemently defended its viewpoint — even going as far as to use its transcriptions to spell out "REDHANDED" in secret code to attempt to prove Google's guilt.