Slashdot Mirror

dave256 writes: "I was recently wandering about looking for some lyrics and CD track listings, and going to my good old standby, lyrics.ch (and summarily suffering through the redirection to songfile), I noticed a notice:'On September 30, 2001, the International Lyrics Server website will be closed and all lyrics will be removed from the Songfile web site. Thank you for your support, and we appreciate your past patronage. Please direct any questions or inquiries regarding this change to lyrics@harryfox.com.' Who was this masked harryfox.com? Boy was I (not) surprised. I for one will miss the old beast." The lyrics.ch site has survived some tough times before, so perhaps this isn't really its end.

Anonymous Coward sent a link to lyrics.mguk.ru/, operating under the name LyricsDot, which looks a lot like the old non-profit www.lyrics.ch database did before it signed an agreement with the (U.S. based) National Music Publishers Association and went commercial. The trick with this new lyrics server is that it's in Russia, where U.S. law (and copyright law in general) seems to mean little or nothing. Is this the wave of the future? Will other sites containing data that violates copyrights or otherwise irritates large U.S. companies move to Russia or other countries where local authorities are unlikely to cooperate with American law enforcers? It's going to be interesting to see where this all goes.

slambo writes "Today's New York Times is reporting that everyone's favorite lyrics site, the International Lyrics Server and the NMPA have reached an agreement that would put the site back online more or less intact. " How about OLGA? Please?

Hasdi R Hashim writes "The searchable lyrics site has been shut down by local authorities today believe it or not. Once again, the big megalomaniac company goes after non-profit little fish." With over a million hits a day, one would think the music industry would know better than to irritate that many consumers.