A lyrics site has been hit with a $6.6m lawsuit after posting lyrics without authorisation. 

Live Universe, a site founded by MySpace co-founder Brad Greenspan that was taken down towards the end of 2010, has been penalised by a US court for publishing lyrics without a music publishing license. 

Music Week report that publishers Peermusic, Bug Music and Warner Chappell have put forward a case for 528 sets of lyrics being illegally published, at a rate of $12,500 per song. Said case accuses Greenspan of engaging in “serial misconduct, and refus[ing] to pay the court sanctions. Towards the end he would show up, and have either a new lawyer, or no lawyer.”

The case has been going since the site’s takedown, with Greenspan’s last lawyer withdrawing from the case in August 2011.

It might seem a lot – well, let’s not beat around the bush, it is a lot – but Ross Charap of Arent Fox laywers claims that the money is there. “This is an important new stream of revenue for publishers”, stated Fox. “They got nothing from it five or six years ago, and now they get tens of millions of dollars. These sites are making hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars a year, on the backs of people who write this music and own this music.” The typical license fee for a lyrics site sees 50% of revenue going back to publishers and songwriters.

So, FACT readers, next time you feeling like typing ‘WHY THEY HIDE THEIR BODIES UNDER MY GARAGE’ under anything we post about Blawan (and on Facebook this happens a lot), take a moment. You could be next in the dock. Then some bodies will really start getting hidden.