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Actually, you're quoting only the (ridiculous) top of the "range". Other articles quote prices like 65 million pounds (~$127 million US dollars), while other articles say they are "entertaining offers of 8 digits or more". Scrape together the first $10 million and they should jump right on it, considering they haven't really invested *that* much until the recent fire.

While TPB is at it, they should include some servers to resurrect the old Lyrics server from www.lyrics.ch. I sure miss being able to look up those lyrics for 100,000+ songs.

What's that? Google, you say? OK, never mind the lyrics thing.

There used to be a wonderful lyrics site many years ago. It got shut down and then co-opted.

It used to be http://www.lyrics.ch/.

No more.

There used to be a great site at http://www.lyrics.ch that had pretty much any song lyric you wanted. Eventually, they got sued and went offline for a while. When they came back, they brought back the lyrics but they were only available within an applet that spread the words over a few pages and made it difficult to copy.

At the time, that seemed like an acceptable solution to all. So what's changed?

Actually, there are two copyrighted elements which need to be considered. The original sheet music which lists the notes that make up the song will have a copyright and separate performance right, which is probably violated by making a MIDI file and distributing it without consent ("reverse engineering" them from another performance won't exempt you). The original lyrics are also copyrighted and can't be reproduced for wide distribution (even as a vocal transformation) without consent.

www.lyrics.ch ran into this problem a few years back. They were shut down for a year or more as they sought permission from the various copyright holders and repackaged the lyrics in a "secure" format.

I don't think the legal issues are really all that jumbled. It's just a question of whether a parody of this form qualifies as a "fair use".

This is just another step. Lawyers will keep trying to clamp down on intellectual property until we finally say "ENOUGH". Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should go out and pilfer every piece of IP that isn't secured (and even try to get the ones that are). But, at some point, Joe Sixpack will realize how insanely stupid it is for him to pay $0.076 for a tune on his Nokia phone. One that may or may not be copyrighted or may not even really resemble the original song. He'll then start wondering why CDs have never come down in price and why the artist (who we only want to protect, remember?) gets so very little. Then he'll wonder why he can't play his new "enhanced" music media in the car AND at home. Then he'll wonder why he spends so much money on IP in the first place.

Yes, it's fun to have a unique ring on my phone (mine happens to play Europe's Final Countdown). I wouldn't pay extra for the benefit. I coded mine from some very old sheet music I had laying around. I don't know if that's copyright infringement, but I do know I could play it on my keyboard in 1987, and I could even program my keyboard to play it ad infinitum if I so chose. I don't see the difference between it and my phone. If anything, the phone is lesser quality.

At any rate, back to the original conversation. The record labels are shooting themselves in the foot. Even Wal-Mart figured out that to get people in the door, you've got give a little bit away. They can lock down every musical format they want, make it where it's not usable any more, and guess what? Their customer base will die out. I'm quite sure they'll just blame it on piracy though, like they always do.

I'm just waiting patiently for the day the pendulum starts swinging back the other way. More and more people are getting appalled by the increased prices, restricted uses, and gestapo tactics. When they finally get this phone thing locked down, I'm sure it'll be about as useful as www.lyrics.ch.

And lyrics in general.

The Harry Fox Agency has managed to close down a source of information so universally acknowledged as useful that it was one of the first archives/search sites on the web.

The story is told in part here and here and here.

The parable of the dog in the manger, who can't eat the hay himself, but prevents others from eating it, has never been more appropriate.

• can't copy/paste lyrics
• can't save the lyrics as a text file
• can't easily print the lyrics to a single song at once
• can't even get a screen shot of the lyrics!

The only way to get the text would be to circumvent their java applet, which may be illegal under DMCA, even if what I do with the lyrics falls under fair use.

One of my favorite sites was the Internation Lyrics Server. It contained song lyrics submitted by its visitors, so essentially they were the opinions of what the songs said (who can really tell what Iron Butterfly is singing in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" anyway?). Nevertheless, the music industry sued, so the site shut down. It's sort-of back, but much of the database has been expunged. I'd love it if someone could get their hands on the original database and mirror it.

Sorry, it just sounds hilarious. :-)

IMHO, I think we're in too deep to get away from HTTP completely, though if it was integrated into the browsers smoothly, noone would complain.

Think about it, how many people are on the web that don't even know what FTP is compared to HTTP? Their life revolves around http://www.whatever.com, and they even have troubles with .org or .net sometimes too! Makes you wonder how many of these people even know about places like lyrics.ch.

Isn't this the same thing as lyrics.ch?

I don't know if they'd have the lyrics to the that song, seein' as it's in sanscrit, but you can search through all kindsa song lyrics at the International Lyrics Server.

I am certain that the geek population would not allow the presence of Leo DeCRAPio in a Star Wars flick. I am not afraid.