Biden Administration Backs Google In Song Lyrics Case At Supreme Court
© Thomson Reuters PHOTO. The Google LLC logo at the Chelsea Google Store in Manhattan, New York.Blake Britten
(Reuters) - The Biden administration's attorney general said on Tuesday that the U.S. Supreme Court should not review Alphabet Google Ltd's ruling on songwriting website Genius over Google's alleged copying of Genius lyrics.
Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar said in a court report that the justices should have agreed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Genius case was preempted by federal copyright law.
Genius, formerly known as Rap Genius, sued Google in New York state court in 2019 for placing his lyrics at the top of Google search results without permission.
Genius does not own song copyrights, which are usually owned by artists or publishers. He accused Google of violating their terms of service by stealing his work and posting it on Google's sites.
Last year, the 2nd Circuit Court upheld a ruling by a federal district court in Manhattan that Genius' breach-of-contract claims are based on copyright issues and can only be brought in copyright suits.
Genius told the Supreme Court that Google's victory allowed major tech companies to steal content from sites that host user-generated information, including Reddit, eBay and Wikipedia.
Google claimed to have licensed the words and claimed that Genius "wanted to ignore the current copyright holders and invent new rights through an implied contract."
On Tuesday, Prelogar criticized the 2nd Circuit's suggestion that copyright law "categorically" precludes contract claims based on a "promise not to copy" creative works.
But the attorney general recommended denying the request because it was unclear whether Genius could prove it had a valid contract with Google.
Prelogar also said there was "little indication" that another appeals court would have handled the case differently.
Genius attorney Josh Rosencrantz said Wednesday that "there is an entrenched precedent if and when breach-of-contract claims are brought" and that "review is not only warranted, but urgent."
A Google spokesperson said the company "does not crawl or crawl websites for text searches" because Genius' claims had no basis in fact.
The attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Blake Britten in Washington)
