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Music Industry Shaking Down Coffee Shops
realjd writes with news out of Florida that music licensing companies are now hitting small bars and coffee shops that offer live music, even if only occasionally and even if the musicians don't get paid. One coffee-shop owner told musicians they can only perform their own songs from now on. "A restaurant owner who doesn't even offer live music was approached for payment for having the TV on while the Monday Night Football theme played. And if the owners pay up to one licensing company, all of the others start harassing them, calling four times a day, demanding payment too. It sounds like they don't even check whether any copyright violations occurred, they're just sending bills to any business that may or may not have live music."
Disclaimer: I am not advocating this. Not! This is just an observation.
You know, I'm surprised we don't hear about anyone going on a shooting spree inside the offices of the MAFIAA or ASCAP, etc. It's kind of a testament to human goodness that so far, no one driven out of business by these terrorists (yeah, I said it) has freaked out and decided to take their antagonists with them. I mean, given how many hundreds of small businesses have been ruined be these shenanigans, not a single owner has been unstable enough to want revenge? Again, I'm not saying that's what should happen. I'm just kind of surprised that it hasn't.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Yep. This garbage has been going on for years and years. Here's a story from the SF Chronicle about a bar that quit having live music all together after constant threats from ASCAP. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/ 12/03/BUGL13CH5H26.DTL
Man, this is so harshly on target. Beatles played all old school rock'n'roll songs in Hamburg and for MONEY. My pick no one bothered to collect money from them then.
And word "abused" is totally wrong here. Every serious group claims that they got their talents in mastering of their instruments trough playing cover songs.
I think it is time for serious peaceful revolt against so called "copyright collectors".
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
First of all: IAAL, but this ain't legal advice.
1. This is nothing new. Public performances have had to be licensed since right around 1900, and ASCAP has been collecting fees for blanket licenses since 1914. This is not a new campaign designed to squelch independent musicians, as some comments have intimated.
2. This isn't controversial or surprising. It's not an issue of free speech or fair use, at least as far as public performances in profit-making business establishments are concerned. The EFF and the ACLU, I suspect, wouldn't be interested -- and neither would some random Congressman be shocked to have to pay ASCAP/BMI/SESAC fees, as one comment suggested. Maybe it would be good to allow unlicensed performances of music in business establishments, but that hasn't been the law for a very long time.
3. My sense is that around a dozen businesses decide to "fight" blanket license fees each year, thinking that somehow they won't end up having to pay or that the licenses aren't needed in order to play copyrighted songs in their establishments. They always lose.
4. ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC have occasionally been accused of "shaking down" businesses that really don't play any music for which they need a license -- like, say, bars that only play traditional Irish songs that are in the public domain. If those stories are true, the shakedowns are bad, wrong, and potentially liability-producing. (See also 17 USC 110.)
If you still want to be mad at somebody (and there may be good reason to be mad about some of this, just not most of it), at least be mad at the right people: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, who work as the agents of owners of copyright in musical works (not sound recordings). The RIAA is a group of copyright owners in sound recordings, and has nothing to do with this (except that some of the music publishers and some of the record labels are commonly owned).
That a songwriter gets paid when you play her song?
I've been the poor musician, the DJ and the radio station. No, the songwriter doesn't get paid when you play their song in fact. The RIAA "guesses" what songs you would have played, and pays the songwritters according to these guesses. The system is far from exact.
And if you worked in a "sucky little coffee shop" is so bad to work for, why did you work at one for a dozen or so years? It couldn't have paid THAT good that you would have put up with it, could it?
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
I see many dimes -- no enough to pay the rent, but enough to pay the electric bill. I get 90% of what ASCAP collects from my performances, and every one they miss for which I have evidence (a program, recording, poster, etc.), they confirm and collect for. They're right downtown across from Lincoln Center, easy to find. Go upstairs and make an appointment with the ASCAP rep for your region.
Dennis