Music at work? Illegal!
p2pnet news | Music:- “Is there anything you can do with music that doesn’t make you a thieving, blood-thirsty pirate in the eyes of the music industry?” - wonders CustomPC, going on:
“If you were going to be a truly law-abiding citizen then you wouldn’t copy any of your music to use for your car or MP3 player and, apparently, you wouldn’t listen to a radio at work either.”
Huh?
Yup, because Kwik-Fit, UK car repair firm which allowed its employees to listen to music that work, has been accused of infringing musical copyrights.
“The action against the Kwik-Fit Group has been brought by the Performing Rights Society which collects royalties for songwriters and performers,” says the BBC.
And even more ridiculous, “At a procedural hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh a judge refused to dismiss the £200,000 damages claim,” says the story, going on:
The PRS claimed that Kwik-Fit mechanics routinely use personal radios while working at service centres across the UK and that music, protected by copyright, could be heard by colleagues and customers.
Oh! The Horror!
But, “Lord Emslie said he should not be taken as accepting that the PRS would necessarily succeed in their claims”.
This is nothing new, though.
In Canada, SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, figures dentists and hairdressers owe its members a living.
If customers listen to music on the premises, dentists and hairdressers should pay SOCAN, it states.
Not only but also, the organisation sent a threatening letter p2pnet when we used the SOCAN logo in a story on the farce.
(Thanks, Julie)
Also See:
CustomPC - Listening to radios at work is illegal, October 8, 2007
BBC - Kwik-Fit sued over staff radios, October 5, 2007
threatening letter - SOCAN threatens p2pnet. Again, August 2, 2007
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October 9th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Unbelievable! If they keep this up people will turn off music and then the industry will really be in trouble.
October 9th, 2007 at 9:35 am
WTF! The current situation is beyond insane. Somebody has got to stop these greedy mother fuckers. You know, sometimes I’m driving my car around town, driver window down, I up the volume quite a bit, people outside can listen to my music (don’t worry, not rap or gangsta shit), are these ass holes going to lobby to make that a crime as well? Oh dear.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:05 am
(RIAA rep): ……. It’s the radio. Why are songs allowed on the radio in the first place? Remove them from the airwaves and everyone’ll be happy, right?
This is like entrapment.
What do musicians think of this kind of behaviour? Don’t you think they want people to listen to their music and not have a fear of being sued?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7021743.stm
Many musicians want people to hear their music.
I’ve always wondered, why do the RIAA never go after the mass producers of copyrighted material who end up selling it on the streets? Do they, and you just don’t hear about it? Or are the RIAA afraid that if they do, they might get retaliation from the big, bad “terrorists” who profit from it?
How much of the money the RIAA gets from lawsuits goes to the musicians?
Can you offer proof of this?
I’ll take a link on this thread.
Come on, show us you do it for the artists.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
If some music company patsy came to my home or place of business threatening me, they would likely have a good old fashioned redneck “a$$ whupping” fed to them and then have assault charges pressed against THEM.
Playing music in one’s business IS NOT A CRIME - especially when it is free music. Since the republicans have so long bitched and moaned about big businesses having to face frivilous lawsuits, they should feel the same about big corporations doing the same thing against people. If big business choose to terrorize people with their high price lawyers, then their executives should be afraid to be in society. I’m going to laugh when they go after the wrong person and that person goes Virginia Tech on them. Unfortunately, in our society, well placed violent acts seem to be the quickest way to spur reform.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
The next Copycrime: “making hearable”
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071008-the-next-copycrime-making-hearable-rings-up-200000-copyright-suit.html
October 10th, 2007 at 6:08 am
If they keep it on like that, soon the only music we’ll have the right to listen to is live improvised free jazz!
October 12th, 2007 at 5:43 am
THE IRONY / WHAT A RIOT
Its ironic, but there is no way that an owner of a place, wether a dental office or a car repair shop can license the performance of songs played on radio or television RATIONALLY:
1. Licenses sold to these places are “blind” (the so called blanket licnse), meaning that the licensee has preactically no idea what songs are in fact licensed.
2. The owners of radios have also no idea IN ADVANCE as to what songs will be broadcast.
3. Even if the radio owner knew in advance what song will be played, it could not check to see if his/her license covered the song so as to turn the radio off when an unlicensed song is being broadcasted.
The above means that the so called blanket licenses are rather useless and cannot solve an alleged problem of music being used for free when radios are heard in public places.
I think some defense lawyers for venues that have been approached or sued by the performance righters have not been smart about this issue, have not used it as a defense and are instead advising their clients to pay for the music, simply because it’s cheaper to cave in than to fight. What a riot.