In a classic case of ready-fire-aim, music publishing giant Warner-Chappell apologized to PearLyrics founder Walter Ritter, whose application searched users' files and the Web for lyrics to import into their iTunes folder.
As reported earlier, Warner-Chappell's first reaction to the application was a cease-and-desist letter as part of a crackdown on sites that publish lyrics and song scores.
Trouble was, PearLyrics isn't a site and it doesn't publish lyrics or song scores — it just searches for sites that do, just as Google, Yahoo! or any other search engine would.
While PearLyrics lacked the legal guns to call Warner-Chappell's bluff, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred Von Lohmann wasn't intimidated. In a widely circulated letter to W/C, he noted that "pearLyrics does not violate U.S. copyright law and that any legal threats by Warner/Chappell against U.S. software developers in connection with software similar to pearLyrics could expose Warner/Chappell to legal action in U.S. federal courts."
1. ... could expose Warner/Chappell to legal action in U.S. federal courts
The "Legal Action" could have been
1- A hefty fine for FRIVILOUS LAWSUITS
2- Fine and Professional Disciplinary action for engaging in Malicous Lawsuits
Fortunately, THE INTERNET now makes learning about the technicalities of the U.S. law potentially available for everyone around the globe to review!
Posted at 6:00AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Search Engines Web