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rap genius is not derivative. its transformative, and therefore falls under fair use. Its also UGC, which as noted is specifically granted safe harbor under th

• tptacek 13y ago
  Is UGC always a safe harbor? To qualify for safe harbor in the case of file sharing services, it's not enough not to deliberately populate the site with copyrighted content and to honor takedowns; there's also a requirement that the operators of the site not run it with foreknowledge of infringing copyright, so that if they became aware of copyvio content, they'd still be required to take it down.
• frankacter 13y ago
  While certainly subjective, I don't agree that it is transformative. Consider the model is for a user to upload the copyrighted lyrics first and then they and/or others create annotations on top. Put another way, Rap Genius is essentially inducing users to upload copyrighted lyrics in order to make use of their annotation service. That aside, even the resulting product does not seem to fit the "originality" test: "Revisions, annotations or other cosmetic alterations to the work do not qualify as originality; the work must be unique to the author, using only minor elements of other copyrights. The court generally defines this as 'distinguishable variation' between the two works. In other words, the works must be obviously substantially different for the change to be considered transformative under law." While the annotation layer is certainly unique and distinguishable, the lyrics are not "transformed" into a distinguishable variation, they are left in their original state on their site.