Legal problems with lyrics?

I was wondering what the whole deal is with lyric legality: aren't most websites that have them illegal because of the fact that they're copyrighted? But with digital releases these days not giving you them at all, who is to blame?

I study Japanese and Korean trying to make certain lyrics available for artists that aren't widely translated but have not posted anything on the internet yet, partly because some websites have supposedly been taken down because translations are derivative works, and secondly, for the personal reason in that I see other people's translations copied and pasted everywhere with no credit to the one who did it. I wouldn't like that. And besides, they couldn't really be protected as they are in a sense illegal themselves. Such a shame.

Do you guys know anything about the law behind online lyrics sites?

Quote :

Do you guys know anything about the law behind online lyrics sites?

I know my PC picked up a nasty virus from one of those lyric sites a while ago so I have avoided them like the plague ever since....

Song lyrics are usually copyrighted and as such you need to obtain permission before use/reproduction unless an exception applies - e.g. "fair use."

i stick to the websites that aren't gonna F*ck my computer up for lyrics (lyrics.wikia.com for non-metal lyrics, and metal archives for the metal, obviously).

Don't know of the legality of that myself.

Dark Lyrics is a good website for this kind of thing. I've had no problems form using it:

http://www.darklyrics.com/