darrenbarefoot.com

If you’ve ever googled song lyrics, then you know what Doc Searls is talking about:

Click on the top results and you’ll find that every one has a pop-up window, plus lots of other advertising jive. Of course, you can block those in your browser; but still, pop-up windows suck. They break the Web’s social contract, which says (among other things) that the publisher should not abuse the reader’s intentions. Nobody goes to a page saying “I want a pop-up window”.

These lyrics pages exist for a good (though bad) reason: most artists don’t publish their own lyrics. People want to see lyrics, however, so the advertising baiters publish the lyrics anyway. Copyright be damned.

Indeed, every third-party lyrics site is a nightmare of pop-ups and blaring banner ads. Doc doesn’t mention the other downside of all these lyric sites–incorrect lyrics and misspellings. I see them all the time. It’s conceivable that, because these sites copy each other, an incorrect lyric could eventually become the canonized version.

Interestingly, Bob Dylan has followed Doc’s advice, and his site owns the top spot for Dylan lyric searches both common and obscure.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under Internet, Music. Tag Testing Project: bob dylan, copyright, song lyrics, the doors. Photo by . You can skip to the end and leave a response, or trackback from your own site. If you don't see your comment within a day or so, drop me an email. Sometimes my comment spam filter gets overly zealous.