It's apparently illegal to post lyrics on the Internet, and I think some
lyrics sites have been sued or shut down because of this. Some guitar tab
sites (notably
olga.net, the Online Guitar Archive), were also forced to
shut down in the past, partly because of the lyrics (but also because of the
uncertain legality of the tabs themselves, but that's another story...in any
case now they can only include a few words of lyrics).
From: "Kent Wang" <kwang(a)kwang.org>
Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
To: <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Subject: [WikiEN-l] WikiLyrics
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 13:16:02 -0600
I was browsing through
OHHLA.com (Online Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive) and
realized that a lyrics archive would be an excellent application of Wiki
technology. Although OHHLA is the most comprehensive website in its
genre, there are still many less popular artists that are not covered,
and most of the pages I've seen contain at least a mistake or two.
So I think a great new WikiMedia project would be a "WikiLyrics" that
would cover music lyrics for all genres.
Hip-hop lyrics are particularly in need for a wiki because they are full
of slang words and in-references that can be Wikified to articles
explaining them. Hip-hop albums also rarely come with lyrics sheets
though ironically, are probably most in need of them.
I've already Googled for "lyrics wiki" and found no significant hits.
I'm very enthusiastic about this idea but a major problem that will need
to be resolved is that almost all lyrics are not open content and the
GFDL will most certainly be incompatible. Though the RIAA is definitely
tort-happy, I don't believe there have been any attempts to shut down
online lyrics websites, especially since they should not undermine
record sales.
I eagerly await your comments on this idea.
Kent Wang
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