Copyright Infringement or Extra Publicity?

I’m hoping this video is still available as you’re reading this. If it’s not, that means party poopers, Metallica have had it removed since they’re stinkers when it comes to having fun with their music. For those of you who love Sponge Bob, (who doesn’t?!) enjoy! And if you want a good laugh check out the video responses for more chuckles!

People are so anxious to protect their copyright and though I think you should be aware of who is using your stuff illegally and we should respect copyrights of others, there is a fine line.

Think about song lyrics, for instance. How many times have you looked up song lyrics online? Heck, a good friend and I have a silly game where we reply to each other’s emails using song lyrics. Yes, I know it sounds odd, but it makes perfect sense to us.

Because of this, I’m often looking up lyrics to songs online and find myself perturbed when I come across the top 10 sites listed in Google that have no lyrics for the song I want. This is one case where it’s NOT the webmasters being shady and hoping to get rankings for certain keywords just to make a killing with Adsense. In these cases where the lyrics have disappeared, the songwriters have sent cease and desist notices and have ruined all the fun. Lyrics are a huge part of appreciating music, but they aren’t the music itself and I would think having the lyrics available online would help generate more interest, right?

Bringing this back to Internet marketing - sometimes people go overboard in protecting their intellectual property. No, I’m not saying let people walk all over you and take anything they want of yours, but stop and think about whether what they might be using could actually help generate more buzz for your business. If so, let ‘em have it! Make it clear what they can and can’t use and you’re likely to gain a few friends and a few bucks.