
Genius hid Morse code in song lyrics to prove Google was copying - Anon84
https://nypost.com/2019/06/17/genius-hid-morse-code-in-song-lyrics-to-prove-google-was-cheating/
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ceejayoz
Discussed (at length!) yesterday.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20194952](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20194952)

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jedberg
FWIW a lot of people read HN Mon-Fri while at work, so it's not surprising
that this was missed by many yesterday.

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anonu
The NYPost article is a bit light on details. The WSJ article mentioned
explains more:

> Starting around 2016, Genius said, the company made a subtle change to some
> of the songs on its website, alternating the lyrics’ apostrophes between
> straight and curly single-quote marks in exactly the same sequence for every
> song.

> When the two types of apostrophes were converted to the dots and dashes used
> in Morse code, they spelled out the words “Red Handed.”

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notinversed
It's disconcerting to see Google hiding behind the "just a partner/contractor"
for literally every horrible thing they do now.

You did it. You own all the worlds info. Congrats. Stop pretending like you
don't.

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kreetx
The issue _might_ actually be that they didn't know. It's on the accuser to
prove their part (which, it seems, they now have?).

It's not all that easy to verify supply chains. So, say two parties have
exactly the same lyrics for a song, must one of them be copy of snother?

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m3kw9
Lawsuit and settlement coming up

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RickJWagner
Wow. Nice sting.

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d33373
> What the company did to catch Google was to watermark lyrics with the help
> of apostrophes. By alternating between straight and curly single-quote marks
> in exactly the same sequence for every song. When turned into dots and
> dashes, the apostrophes spell the words Red Handed, which is a smart trick.

Smart!

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CobrastanJorji
It's a really cool approach, no doubt. Map makers solve the problem using
"Trap streets," which are small, fake streets that don't really exist, which
would demonstrate that you blindly copied their map if your map also contains
it. But for song lyrics, it's not really an option to add fake lines to the
song. Using different apostrophe styles is really smart.

