Legality of selling copies of copyrighted song lyrics?

If you purchase a license to reprint the lyrics or get permission to reprint them, then you'd be fine.

If you get caught selling copyrighted material, as in for commercial purposes, you could end up in a lot of boiling hot water.

Plus, even if you gave it away, you'd still be in trouble. You can make a copy for yourself. You can point people to the web site where the group officially publishes the lyrics, and people can access it from their cell phones.

But that's as far as you can go.

What a cool idea. Unfortunately, to do it right, you'll need to do some homework and obtain the necessary license from ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, or some other copyright clearinghouse. If you're not doing it for profit, they might not zing you for a big license fee.

Doing it without a license would be a copyright infringement (distribution of unauthorized copies). They could sue you for up to $150,000 for each song. It is not a criminal offense if you're not making any profit, and if it's not more than $1,000 for the licenses. The police couldn't care less, at least until you are violating some criminal law. They need probable cause to arrest you. The bad news is that you have the burden of proving any affirmative defense in federal court, including "fair use".

Better to just go get the license, print the things, including prominent reference to the license.

It is, definitely, illegal. You would be enriching yourself by distributing the copyrighted work of another without permission. The cops probably wouldn't get involved -- until they kick you out of the concert, at which point the cops will make sure that you leave.

It probably wouldn't be worth their time to sue, but you would almost definitely be required to leave the concert. (No, they can't confiscate your booklets or your money without a court order, even though they might try to bluff you if this actually happened.)

If, on the other hand, you were just handing out copies of the lyrics, they might ask you to stop but I doubt they'd ask you to leave the concert.

There have been several websites that let you download lyrics to load up along with your MP3s so you can follow the words with the song. But the nice people at the recording music industry who are determined to destroy their industry sued them.

Basically the lyrics are copyright and you can't legally sell them. There are plenty lyric websites out there you can access, but of course they are breaking the law.

If you wanted to sell booklets with lyrics you would want to add a lot more value (art, background etc) and get the band into the deal and they get a percentage...to do it legally.

Or you can just do it. The worst they will do is write you a letter saying you can't do it. They could sue you , but you have no money so what are they gong to sue you for.

Note, you will not be doing anything criminal...it would be a civil case, not a criminal case, but you are breaking the law.

Yes, it's illegal without express written permission from the copyright holder. Actually, making a bunch of copies and handing them out for free might even be infringement in some circumstances. Some police departments do have units that enforce such things (copyright infringements, counterfeit or pirated merchandise, etc.).

Yes, the courts take a dim view of such things. However, usually the copyright owner has to bring suit.