Kate has reached her heights although some input was deerly missing (come back JD, come back! ).

Someone volunteering for #26?

Quoting from that document:  Hyperlinks have been described as the “digital equivalent of giving the recipient driving directions to another website on the Internet”. [footnote removed, see article] The hyperlink itself does not contain the copyrighted or protected derivative work. [footnote removed, see article]

Also, here is an article I found that will answer a lot of questions about the concerns of posting/sharing lyrics online.  Here’s what you need to know about sharing lyrics online | The FADER

As far as the embedding of videos, I will look into that, but since it is linked to YouTube, I'm not sure if it's a problem.  I will see what I can find out.

^ It's fine with me (as I said earlier: "unless/until admins tell us to act differently."), but I think it is a bit double standard regarding allowing video embeds but not lyrics... (which is of course not at all a plea to stop these too!).

Yesterday I already deleted the lyrics I posted in the threads I started and hope that everyone who has posted original lyrics before will do the same. We can link to an existing lyrics page instead at the start of each new #, so we continue to have the same reference without being bad boys (and girls?)...

Legally speaking it is all quite simple (and not that different in Europe, the USA or Canada...): The reproduction of copyrighted content should be done with the permission of the copyright holders, otherwise it could be considered a copyright infringement.

I doubt that all the embedded videos, reproduced lyrics, photos, album covers, etc. etc. here on PA (site and forum) have that permission...

Now, what to do about that? Nothing, in my opinion. But that is actually a question the site owner(s) should answer and act eventually accordingly. We are in what I call the "grey zone" or the "tolerance zone" for which much lobbying is going on to regulate it better ("Fair use" is an example of that). For the moment it mostly relies on the tolerance of copyright holders if they allow things to be used in a way that is not competing with their own exploitation of their work.

What we are doing here on the PA forums has no commercial intent when we embed a video, reproduce a lyric, etc. so the worst thing that could happen, I think, is that the site owner receives a nice letter from a lawyer that will ask that this or that work should be removed from the site, "or else"... We remove it and that's it. Or we make it a case and defend our "fair use" of that material and a judge might agree with us, or not... That would be a strategy if the site owner likes to go to tribunals. I guess he doesn't, so the most simple thing to do is remove the content in question and go on with our everyday PA life.

Of course, it is good that PA reminds its users now and then that they use copyrighted material and should not make abuse of it (e.g. embed a whole album, all the lyrics of a band, etc.), but let's continue the way we are doing things here and when there's a letter from a lawyer, we act accordingly. That's all.

I'm open to your ideas on this because I don't want to spoil the fun, but I don't want to be opened up to problems either.