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In the UK, the public broadcast of any music requires a licence from the Performing Rights Society. This law covers shops, offices, restaurants and other places of business and the licence costs depend on the type of organisation and the size of the public area. Shops usually have a small sticker in the window to show they have paid.
For this particular case the cost per annum should be £59.36 + VAT
The money collected is distributed to its members - the rights holders. This includes the big record companies but also independent musicians.
Everything you need to know is here: http://www.prs.co.uk?

Then it isn't very clear. As with all moral questions, there are grey areas. In this one, the answer depends on something that you have no way of knowing: is there a way for the creator to profit from his work in the future that your actions will effect.

In the case of old games, I'd say the chance of this happening is almost zero. I don't think there's any moral problem, for example, in my collection of old Sinclair Spectrum games I have collected for use with a PC emulator. While I do own original copies of some of these, there are many in there that I never did have a copy of.

Out-of-print books is a more interesting question. Note that this may only be a temporary situation, as under standard industry contract terms, after a book has been out of print for some time period (usually about a year, I think) the publisher's exclusive right to print copies is revoked. I know of at least one author who is currently considering rereleasing one of her out-of-print novels as an e-book.

Music rarely becomes completely unavailable, as far as I can tell. As I understand it, most music publishers will sell rights to include almost any track on compilations under standard (non-discriminatory) terms. E.g., you could purchase a Limited Availability License from the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, which would effectively authorise you to make up to 500 reproductions of up to 30 minutes of music for £17.63.

No, I didn't pay for it. I have a PRS Licence.
Also, I told my friend not to buy the Spice Girls CD, and deprived them of a sale.

Hmm... the radio has come up quiet a bit in this topic.

AFAIK, radio stations make a careful note of the songs they play, and a fee goes to the artists through bodies like the Performing Rights Society.

So airplay isn't entirely a free-for-all...

And you think mainstream music in the 1950 and 60s was different to now? It wasn't.

BBC radio was the same old bland rubbish back then. Kids had to listen to live music or tune in to foreign radio stations to hear the "new music", the BBC would only play what the government wanted to do. This lead to the invention of pirate radio, radio stations on ships anchored in international waters off the British coast.

Independent radio isn't a god-given right, it's a business just like the music business. It can only survive if it can sell its listeners to its advertisers. You can't run a radio station out of your own pocket like you can with a website, unless you're very rich. Imagine a student radio station: the radio authority fees for FM would be £1500 non-refundable application fee + £214 per year. The Performing Rights fees would be £400 per year, and then there's the transmitter and studio electricity bill, assuming your DJs are doing it for free and playing only their own records to save the station buying any! You can't get away without sponsorship, and sponsors are only looking for one thing - your audience.

The same thing goes for any pubs and clubs you've been to - there's a world of fees and licensing ready to swallow you up unless you turn a steady profit.

Please stop pretending that "independent" radio, clubs and musicians are anything less than money-grubbing whores, because that's what they are.

And it's all because libraries let people share books at will, depriving book pub...er authors of their just rewards!

I can't speak for other countries, but in the UK, libraries pay publishers a royalty for having their books in the library's collection. It's a similar deal if you want to play music in public (say in your bar, or your shopping centre) - you pay the PRS an annual license fee.

In the UK, at least, the Performing Right Society handles this sort of thing. Their inspectors go around to pubs and restaurants asking to see the PRS license, and can levy fines if they find a violation.

I was trying to be too special with my first ever post on /.
Here are the links from my above post that will work without you having to monkey about with them:

MCPS
PRS
PRS - music on the web
Copyright Licensing Agency

I was trying to be too special with my first ever post on /.
Here are the links from my above post that will work without you having to monkey about with them:

MCPS
PRS
PRS - music on the web
Copyright Licensing Agency

In the UK there are essentially two bodies who goven music licencing. They are the MCPS and the PRS. They will both charge UK music users if they publish audio on the web that requires a licence (for eg, music not owned by the publisher although there are other exceptions) however the PRS state on their website that software such as Napster is not to blame because they are not the content providers..

Where there is broadband available in the UK the amount of mp3 swapping between individuals can be very high. Take the University that I attend as an example. On the residential network (the network running around student halls of residence) the number of people sharing mp3's via Microsoft Networking is very high indeed and that doesn't take into account those people who set up their own FTP servers and alike. Software like Napster and websites that publish links to mp3 files just make it easier for people to share and download music whether it has been authorised by the copyright holder or not. If these services did not exist then the semi-underground movement of sharing mp3's (or bootleg tapes, or CD's, or any other form of music carrying media) would continue.

Another good website which deals with copyright issues within the UK is run by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Although it is a bit backward with regards to specific information on digital and Internet copyright issues it does give the raw facts.

--Dan.

In the UK there are essentially two bodies who goven music licencing. They are the MCPS and the PRS. They will both charge UK music users if they publish audio on the web that requires a licence (for eg, music not owned by the publisher although there are other exceptions) however the PRS state on their website that software such as Napster is not to blame because they are not the content providers..

Where there is broadband available in the UK the amount of mp3 swapping between individuals can be very high. Take the University that I attend as an example. On the residential network (the network running around student halls of residence) the number of people sharing mp3's via Microsoft Networking is very high indeed and that doesn't take into account those people who set up their own FTP servers and alike. Software like Napster and websites that publish links to mp3 files just make it easier for people to share and download music whether it has been authorised by the copyright holder or not. If these services did not exist then the semi-underground movement of sharing mp3's (or bootleg tapes, or CD's, or any other form of music carrying media) would continue.

Another good website which deals with copyright issues within the UK is run by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Although it is a bit backward with regards to specific information on digital and Internet copyright issues it does give the raw facts.

--Dan.