Rap Genius Settles

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I wrote about the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA)'s takedown action against fifty so-called "lyric sites" last November.

As a follow-up to that, it was announced earlier this week that RapGenius.com—one of those sites—has reached an agreement with the NMPA. While it's still unclear what they actually agreed to, I'm happy that Rap Genius is on the path toward becoming a licensed service. As Rap Genius Co-Founder Ilan Zechory put it: "The NMPA's members represent some of the best songwriters in the world. Rap Genius allows these songwriters to showcase their work and interact with their biggest fans in unprecedented ways—we couldn't be more excited about this partnership."

We'll have to wait to see the concept of "fair use" argued in court another time.