Technology
Genius said it used morse code to catch Google stealing lyrics
Genius is, well, genius. The company recently accused Google of lifting song lyrics from its site, reports the Wall Street Journal.
How did Genius know Google was stealing? In 2016, Genius made a few changes to the punctuation in its song lyrics. Sometimes, it used a straight apostrophe. Other times, a curly one.
Genius did this in a very specific sequence because (are you ready for this?) when “the two types of apostrophes were converted to the dots and dashes used in Morse code, they spelled out the words ‘Red Handed.'”
That’s how Google was caught, according to Genius.
Google denied stealing any lyrics. Instead, it claimed, the lyrics that show up in the “information panels” that pop up in a Google search are from licensed partners. Genius, however, says it found more than 100 examples of Google taking its content.
Increasingly, Google is trying to provide users with as much information as possible on the search page — convenient for users who don’t want to click onto a website, but bad news for websites that depend on those clicks.
These kinds of lawsuits are fodder for politicians — most notably Elizabeth Warren — who want to break up big tech. As this incident shows, companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon have the power to hurt smaller competition with a few design tweaks.
-
Entertainment6 days ago
Summer Movie Preview: From ‘Alien’ and ‘Furiosa’ to ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’
-
Business7 days ago
Petlibro’s new smart refrigerated wet food feeder is what your cat deserves
-
Entertainment5 days ago
What’s on the far side of the moon? Not darkness.
-
Business5 days ago
How Rubrik’s IPO paid off big for Greylock VC Asheem Chandna
-
Business6 days ago
Thoma Bravo to take UK cybersecurity company Darktrace private in $5B deal
-
Business4 days ago
TikTok faces a ban in the US, Tesla profits drop and healthcare data leaks
-
Business4 days ago
London’s first defense tech hackathon brings Ukraine war closer to the city’s startups
-
Business6 days ago
Zomato’s quick commerce unit Blinkit eclipses core food business in value, says Goldman Sachs