Earlier this week, news surfaced that the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) has filed take-down notices against 50 unlicensed and "undesirable" lyric websites. The copyright infringement study was spearheaded in part by University of Georgia researcher David Lowery, also a member of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker.

The top offender on the study's list was Rap Genius, the "hip-hop Wikipedia" that lets users annotate lyrics. Rap Genius, meanwhile, defended itself as a distinguished "interactive, vibrant art experience created by a community of volunteer scholars," in a statement to The New York Times.

Now, Billboard reports that Rap Genius has entered a licensing agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The deal was made "earlier this year," according to Rap Genius. As Billboard notes, Sony/ATV is the largest music publisher in the world and handles about 31% of music publishing globally. Still, most of the lyrics on Rap Genius currently remain unlicensed. The site is currently working on deals with other publishers, according to a statement received by Billboard.

According to NMPA President and CEO David Israelite, the NMPA's goal isn't to shut down these lyric sites, but rather make more licensing deals happen. "We simply want those that are making money off lyrics to be business partners with the songwriters who created the content that is the basis of the sites," he's quoted as saying by Billboard.