Back in 2014, Google started showing lyrics of a song directly above the search results to make it easier to find lyrics. According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, Genius has accused Google of stealing lyrics directly from its site.
However, this isn’t the first time Genius has accused Google of stealing transcripts from its site. Back in 2017, the company warned the search engine giant that the reuse of the lyrics without permission violates the antitrust law.
In order to prove the accusation, Genius’ developers altered the lyrics that convert into a Morse code that translates to “red handed”. Afterwards, the company found that Google scrapped more than 100 lyrics from the site without permission.
However, Google responded to the claim by saying it does no create the lyrics shown in the search page. Instead, it licenses them from different partners. According to Google, it sources the lyrics from LyricFind which also denied the allegations. Since then, Google has responded that the company will take action against partners who engaged in such practice.
This latest accusation comes just days after reports claimed that the Justice Department is planning on filling an antitrust investigation against Google.