Lyrics aggregator Genius sued Google in a New York court in late 2019 over the supposed violation of its terms of service (ToS), alleging that the search giant ripped off lyrics from their platform and displayed them within Google Search results without prior permission. Following deliberations, the case was dismissed by US District Judge Margo Brodie in 2020, while the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision in March last year. Then in September, Genius asked the US Supreme Court to review the case, leading the country's top court to seek the opinion of Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar for the United States Department of Justice's perspective on the case. Prelogar filed a brief this week with the court, concurring with the lower courts that these allegations are preempted by copyright law.
Prelogar is recommending the nation's top court reject Genius' request to review the case, which comes as a big relief for Google. The crux of the issue seems to be Genius' mode of approach, with the Solicitor General saying that since visitors weren't directly asked to agree to their ToS, no court would find that anybody, Google included, agreed not to scrape lyrics from their platform.
Additionally, the third-highest-ranking DoJ official stated that some might not even know that Genius has a terms of service document in place. Simply put, Genius would have a more robust case had they required every visitor to agree to their website's ToS. It's worth noting here that Genius doesn't own any copyright for the lyrics on its platform, which is why its legal team chose to take the terms of service violation route.
Google understandably feels vindicated here, with the company issuing a statement to Ars Technica saying:
The Solicitor General and multiple courts continue to find that Genius' claims have no merit. We include lyrics in search results to help you quickly find what you are looking for. We license the lyrics text from third parties, and we do not crawl or scrape websites to source lyrics.
Sensing the writing on the wall, Reuters reports that Genius has cautioned the Supreme Court that a favorable ruling towards tech giants like Google could lead to a future where other major corporations could blatantly steal content from platforms that host publicly sourced content, such as eBay, Reddit, or Wikipedia.
Additional reporting by Reuters quotes counsel for Genius, Josh Rosenkranz, saying earlier this week that "there is an entrenched circuit split on whether and when breach of contract claims are preempted," stressing the need for an urgent review of the case by the nation's top court. Genius is running out of legal options right now, although it's still unclear what the Supreme Court decides to do based on the Solicitor General's advice.
Just prior to the original lawsuit, Genius devised a clever way to detect copied lyrics, leveraging formatting changes that would be invisible to the naked eye but detectable by Genius (pictured below). However, the company's lack of legal options has proven to be a significant roadblock in gaining a favorable ruling from the judiciary.
The Solicitor General's brief potentially puts an end to nearly four years of legal back and forth, in which Genius has never tasted any victory. Meanwhile, the lyrics curation website had previously stated that its advertising revenues dwindled due to Google making lyrics available directly on search results. In return, Genius sought a $50 million payout from Google and its third-party sourcing partner, LyricFind.