bwildman: I don't see why you can't allow people to post lyrics that they claim to own the copyright of. Afterall, how do you know that the prose making up people's messages isn't copyrighted? Surely, if a poster asserts that he/she is the copyright holder of posted material, and BrainKing.com had no evidence otherwise, then said material should be allowed. Should there later be a dispute regarding the material's copyright, the poster, and not BrainKing.com, would (1) face the burden of proof that he/she was indeed the copyright holder, and (2) be responsible for any violations of copyright arising from the posting of said material. No?

EIHN: Yes, posting poems may also be in violation of copyright. And copyright does not usually end with the death of the author.

Song lyrics are creative works; hence they are eligible for copyright protection. Interent content is generally not public domain unless identified as such. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain