Fair Use[0] would cover it, I should think. The primary use of lyrics on RG is educational in nature - that is, explaining the meanings behind the lyrics.
Lyrics are a very small part of the completed music as a whole. It's not even the same medium as music, let alone just a small part of the same medium.
1) In order to mount a fair use defense, you must admit that you are infringing on copyright. It is kind of like an insanity murder defense in that way.
2) Fair use for education and commentary is most often used to protect the publishing of excerpts, such as in book reviews or textbooks discussing a type of work.
3) Or you can do fair use transformative commentary or parody. But in this case, the work must be significantly altered (transformed). And you must demonstrate you could not make the point you were making without using that specific work as source material, usually because your commentary was about that work. In my non-attorney opinion this is closest to Rap Genius's scenario, but if you try for this and lose, your work can be considered derivative work and is wholly owned by the original copyright holder.
4) In general, it makes you less sympathetic when you mount a fair use defense while profiting from republishing the work, although that isn't a strict identifier.
5) As mentioned elsewhere on this thread, Rap Genius and other lyrics sites aren't publishing the lyrics to just one song, the lyrics are the core content of the site. That could make fair use more difficult to argue.
Comments
Fair Use[0] would cover it, I should think. The primary use of lyrics on RG is educational in nature - that is, explaining the meanings behind the lyrics.
Lyrics are a very small part of the completed music as a whole. It's not even the same medium as music, let alone just a small part of the same medium.
[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
1) In order to mount a fair use defense, you must admit that you are infringing on copyright. It is kind of like an insanity murder defense in that way.
2) Fair use for education and commentary is most often used to protect the publishing of excerpts, such as in book reviews or textbooks discussing a type of work.
3) Or you can do fair use transformative commentary or parody. But in this case, the work must be significantly altered (transformed). And you must demonstrate you could not make the point you were making without using that specific work as source material, usually because your commentary was about that work. In my non-attorney opinion this is closest to Rap Genius's scenario, but if you try for this and lose, your work can be considered derivative work and is wholly owned by the original copyright holder.
4) In general, it makes you less sympathetic when you mount a fair use defense while profiting from republishing the work, although that isn't a strict identifier.
5) As mentioned elsewhere on this thread, Rap Genius and other lyrics sites aren't publishing the lyrics to just one song, the lyrics are the core content of the site. That could make fair use more difficult to argue.