Big Music ‘collections’ in Grass Valley
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- “How are they going to track that to make sure Joni Mitchell gets this little 50 cents? There’s no way,” said musician Bill Douglass.
Douglass is, “outraged that commercial licensing distributors like BMI and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) are going after small businesses for money,” says CBS13.
But it’s nothing new. Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music have ‘collection’ agencies all around the world hammering everyone from hairdressers to wedding parties.
Douglass is an ASCAP member in Grass Valley, California, “but he and other local musicians say the tactic will make it more expensive for businesses to hire live performers and could cut into the performers’ business,” says the story, adding:
“Grass Valley deli owner Chambra Cooke says he was ordered to pay $400 for a years worth of weekly live jazz performances. While he supports paying artists for their work, he says he wasn’t asked for any paperwork regarding what music was played.
“We have some doubts as to how they know who’s playing, who’s piece is playing,” Cooke said.
The royalty fees are charged to venues where copyrighted music is played in a public setting.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
CBS13 – Small Businesses Hit By Music Copyright Fines, August 3, 2009
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
August 4th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Well Douglas, it’s up to you to get your members to resign or threaten legal action against ASCAP for hindering your ability to perform. First step is convince the majority of your fellow members (including famous people) to join you.
Then ASCAP will listen, if not, sue them out of existence.
As for the unknown and unASCAP artists, this is your opportunity to shine, write your own and play it. You’ll now get a fair chance because of the massive royalties demanded by greedy “not-for-profit” groups like ASCAP/SOCAN are too much for local businesses to pay.
August 4th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Simple no paperwork, no pay we’l’ see you in court. They tired the same thing with us for one of out events, NONE of the music was ASCAP/BMI, they tried to make us pay, we refused, they tried to take us to court and judge threw it out immediately.
August 4th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Hey, ASSCAP!! I’m singing driving down the road, I’m singing in the shower!! I sing to my kids, and my dog!!
OMG!!! you need to come demand payment from me! Cause damn near everything I sing belongs to one of your
“members” and by God, you just cant allow someone like me to get away with this!! I cant even tell you how many
times when i was a young man, that I rolled the windows down on my car and….ohh the shame!!! let all my friends listen to my radio!!! GO AWAY, GO AWAY REAL SOON, YOU WORTHLESS BUNCH OF DOUCHEBAGS!!!
btw STW