Ok...I just saw a Mercedes commercial here in the states that has a song playing in the background...lyrics...

I don’t care where we go
I don’t care what we do
Just take me with you


Song is recorded in country western genre and melody totally unrecognizable as prince but...those are Prince’s Lyrics minus the line about pretty baby...

Somebody on here surely must understand how copyrights work....can they just take his lyrics and use them? Or, is this something that is not protected by copyright since they didn’t use the entire verse? Could they claim that this is common usage and not protected by copyright?

I’m just curious....