Song Lyrics and the Bands who sing them

[RendeR]

Maybe I'm Naive, but what harm is there in the LYRICS of songs being posted on/in collections on the Internet? I've run across both Greenday and Pink Floyd notations that they have requested their lyrics be removed from the Internet.

So somone closer to the music business enlighten me. Why? I don't see how,listening to a tune and showing the fact that you like someones song by having the lyrics out there hurts the bands at all. Why would they want the lyrics removed?

[gottimd]

Maybe so Puff Daddy won't sample them?

Oh my fault, I meant Diddy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Off the top of my head, totally WAG'ing here -- it may be because the lyrics are sold, not given away freely (i.e. sheet music, karaoke lyric sheets, etc.etc.)

[clintl]

The lyrics are protected by copyright. It's no different than posting a poet's work, or the work of any other kind of writer, on the internet without permission. The copyright owner has the right to control how the work is distributed. And, as Jon said, they do sell the rights to reprint lyrics. One of the reasons you rarely see snippets of songs quoted in works of fiction is that the song publishers charge a lot for those rights.