> Genius does not own the copyright to the lyrics. Yes, they may have taken billions of painstaking person-years to hand-transcribe them onto artisanal silks, but no matter how much effort you put into copying someone else's work, it doesn't make it your work, and you can't sue people over it.

Apparently they license the lyrics now:

> Genius isn’t the copyright holder for these lyrics, it just licenses them itself.

It's not a case of someone copying without permission and then suing another person who copied them. It's a valid licensee suing someone who is copying them.

Imagine if a McDonald's franchisee sued someone running a rogue/unlicensed McDonald's around the corner. Would we have no sympathy for them also?

Legally speaking, it appears the right to sue requires at least some exclusive copyright rights, [1] which Genius surely didn't have (and a McDonald's franchisee also would not have). This is presumably why they didn't bring a copyright suit.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=7d4ea127-0fb0...