Slashdot Mirror

...(MCPS in UK for example)

To be technically correct, MCPS changed their name after merging with PRS to "PRS for music" http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/

https://apps.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/apps/memberadmin/Registration.asp?primaryAcc=1 I looked for a signup, thinking I just MIGHT have some little say. No way. You have to have a CAE Number to even sign up. Is that like a tax number, a club membership number, or what? Obviously, no colonials are welcome, whatever it might be. And, just as obviously, if you don't agree with the stated mission of squeezing money out of everyone online, your views are MOST unwelcome. I'll bet they have a voice in the ACTA treaty, though, unlike any voting American citizen.

Die dinosaur die. An idea whose time is at hand?

Mechanical Royalties are collected by the monopoly Harry Fox Agency
( http://www.harryfox.com/public/licenseHome.jsp ) in America
and the writers/composers copyright royalties are collected by the
duopoly ASCAP.COM and BMI.COM .

Mechanical copyright and Performance copyright royalties are collected
by the MCPS-PRS Alliance monopoly in Britain
( http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/Pages/default.aspx ).

All are complicit with the MAFFIA/RIAA shenanigans one-way-or-another
as usual, and generally the royalties are horribly skewed in favor of
already well-to-do, 'established' acts - actively discriminating against new
and 'smaller' players.

The time is ripe for original unsigned composers and musicians to bust the
above cartels by starting their own new organisation for supplying: radio, film,
television, record and cyber 'popular' markets - with a standardised membership
agreement and competitive contracts for the various clients.

Slashdotters might even be able to organise it all ... presuming it is actually possible to 'herd' any or all of those disparate cats.

RR

In the UK we have the MCPS-PRS alliance. They require payment for the use of a radio in any workplace.

"The rates in this section vary depending on the number of days in the year music is played in the workplace, canteens or staff rooms; the number of half-hour units per day music is played in the workplace, the number of employees in the workplace to whom the music is audible and the number of employees to whom the canteen/room is available." http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/playingbroadcastingonline/music_for_businesses/officesandfactories/Pages/officesfactories.aspx

Still, it's reassuring that things are taking a step in the right direction in America.

Well it's in the UK for a start so it's not the RIAA doing this. This is a UK specific body that was set up long before the current industry associations. The fact that's it's radio is incidental though, it's the playing of music to an audience, the same fees would be applicable if it were CDs they're playing.

Yes though, there are two sets of payments involved.

More info n mechanical and performance royalties in the UK are available here:

http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/

There is no way this is going to get thrown out. The servicing chain will loose, loose big time, and frankly I'm amazed such a big brand has been this dumb.

Fees for playing the radio or CDs in shops or offices are well known in the UK. The law may well be an ass, but this particular law is very well known, and any businessman who claims ignorance or rebellion is going to get squished in court.

Kwik-Fit are the most well-known brand of chain garages in the UK. That they've been stupid enough to let employees play the radio in the presence of their customers, without getting a licence, is overwhelmingly their own look-out, pathetic bloody company I've no sympathy at all </vogon>

Licences and tarrifs are well known, well publicised, easy to obtain and inexpensive.

Personally I find almost all instances of intellectual property rights fundamentally flawed, but I'm not stupid enough to try that as an argument in court against a licence fee which has been collected nationwide, in every corner shop and mall, without exception, for fifty odd years. Pick yer bloody battles, mate.

(I'll re-post this as I couldn't spot the link on their site.)
Thats not true. The MCPS-PRS Alliance is a non-profit organisation whose sole purpose is to collect royalties on behalf of artists. I know this because my girlfriend works for them. If you read their About Us page you'd know this too.

the RIAA's UK counterpart, the IFPI

But isn't the IFPI the International Federation of Phonographic Industries?

I think the UK equivalent of the RIAA is the The MCPS-PRS Alliance?

I'm entirely sure it does work this way, I even came pretty close to actually collecting my share of the money for having some of my music played on a small station in London, but the paperwork and membership fees put me off.

Some information about the commercial broadcast payments in Britain can be found at the Mechanical Copyright and Performance: http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/

'Payola' money going in the opposite direction as you suggest may also exist, but I doubt that's the case for any of the BBC radio stations.

last.fm are London-based, so their royalty agreements will be with (AFAIK) MCPS-PRS

I suspect that the BBC "article" is a badly rehashed press release (probably that someone from Radio 1 thought would fill their midday news bulletin).

http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/content/default .asp?targetitem=3461&searchFlag=1 has details of what the people collecting the licenses think is actually needed when. No mention of a specific digital licence there, although there is here - http://www.ppluk.com/ppl/ppl_lf.nsf/DigitalDJ?open Page .

Odd that they charge 120 quid for DJing from CDs and 200 quid from digital formats. I wonder what an MD would count as?