In a rather surprising move, Universal Music has sent a cease and desist order to Spanish lyrics website Portaldeletras, demanding that the website remove the lyrics for The Cranberries’ “Zombie” — or else pay for the right to reproduce them.

Universal claims that by posting the lyrics to the song (written by O’Riordan), the unauthorized website is infringing upon the copyright of the artist. It appears that “Zombie” is the only song that Universal is requesting be removed.

Portaldeletras has complied by removing both English and a Portuguese translation of the lyrics. However, the website has posted a long letter in its defense, saying, “Today, portaldeletras has never at any time supported piracy, and even furthermore, we have tried to support different music artists. Like how you can see from our website, you have the possibility of buying the artists’ discs, downloading the ringtones, and Real Audio clips and wallpapers and many other things. Everything is 100% legal.”

While the site claims to have no links to piracy — they even offer a link to download songs from iTunes — there are also links to much grayer P2P programs scattered throughout the page.

Thanks to Scott for the news.

Sources: Noticiasdot.com, Portaldeletras