# Copyrighted lyrics question (slightly silly)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyrighted-lyrics-question-slightly-silly/183328>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [June 21, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyrighted-lyrics-question-slightly-silly/183328 "2003-06-21T01:34:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyrighted-lyrics-question-slightly-silly/183328/1 "2003-06-21T01:34:59Z")

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As we all know (at least, **Eutychus** hopes we all know), posting complete lyrics to a song is _verboten_ here.

But I have a slightly silly question about that policy. Say I post the first line of a song. The next poster along posts the second line…and so on and so on, until all of the lines of the song are posted. Is that legal? If it ever happens, will the whole thread be deleted, or just enough posts to allow the thread to qualify as “fair use”? And, if the Mods ever perfect their TrollShock[sup]TM[/sup] keyboard electropulse system, will all the posters get zapped, or just the ones near the end?

As I say, silly question, but one I’ve been wondering about in context with a similar, more serious, question about copyright law.

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyrighted-lyrics-question-slightly-silly/183328/2 "2003-06-21T03:02:35Z")

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It’s an interesting point of law, and one that we don’t want to test.

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyrighted-lyrics-question-slightly-silly/183328/3 "2003-06-21T03:41:31Z")

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Some of us took part in a thread one time, celebrating our appreciation of _Hotel California_ by posting a line at a time. Quite rightly, IMHO, I believe **Euty** reminded us of the copyright no-no.

It’s not something I’d do again, preferring to err on the side of caution.

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**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyrighted-lyrics-question-slightly-silly/183328/4 "2003-06-21T05:41:11Z")

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That’s a good point **Duke**. We’ve done it with _Fairy Tale of New York_ too.

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**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyrighted-lyrics-question-slightly-silly/183328/5 "2003-06-21T09:57:53Z")

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IANAL, but I do study copyright law. And IIRC, the SDMB presenting the complete lyrics, regardless of the actual vehicle which was involved in presenting the complete lyrics (that is, whether one person or many persons did it) means that no individual posting/poster has violated copyright, HOWEVER, the net effect is to create a copyright violation on the part of the SDMB. Thus, Eutychus is (was) very correct.

It is very little different than getting together 800 Members to each type up a page of _Harry Potter and the Order of the Gila Monster_ and post it all, in order, on the SDMB.