14 May 2019 App Development
Google is often considered a two-edged sword. It is the most widely used and loved search engine in the world. Google even predicts what the users are about to search. On the contrary, publishers-especially the lyrics publishers are losing a lot of traffic and impressions because users don't click through them any more;ever since Google started to show song texts in search, traffic for such apps and sites has plummeted. On a similar note, Genius- a website and an app well known for showing songs lyrics accuses the search engine giant of illegally stealing their content.
How did they find out?
Genius says it uses apostrophes in an alternated form pattern between straight and curve apostrophes as a way to watermark them which translates to 'Red Handed' in Morse code. There were over 100 occasions where they found the same apostrophes.
However, there aren't any signs of formal actions against the tech giant. Genius has blamed Google for violating its terms of service and antitrust law. Officials from Genius said that they found such instances of Google since 2017. Despite having pieces of evidence, Genius might not win if it opts to have a legal battle against Google since it doesn't own the lyrics, they just display them.
How did Google respond?
Google has denied any wrongdoing in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. The company said that it takes copyright very seriously and held its sourcing partners accountable for honouring the terms to its agreement. Google relies on its partner, LyricFind for the text of the songs in google search who also denies copying from Genius. Google says that they have asked their third-party sources to investigate this issue and also has launched its own investigation and could 'terminate' their contract with them if found guilty.