Listening To The Radio At Work? Prepare To Be Sued

MLCT writes "The Performing Rights Society, one of the UK's royalties collecting societies, has taken a Scottish car servicing company to court because the employees are alleged to have been listening to the radio at work, allowing the music to be 'heard by colleagues and customers'. The PRS is seeking £200,000 in damages for the 'performances of the music' which they claim equates to copyright infringement. The judge, Lord Emslie, has ruled that the case can continue to hearing evidence, commenting that the key point to note was that music was 'audibly blaring from employee's radios'. Where do the extents of a 'public performance' end? Radios on in cabs?"

Comments

Not Surprising

[mashade]

As a former restaurant manager, this isn't news to me - though the setting is different.

I was once approached by a BMI agent about the music playing in the kitchen for this same reason. ASCAP and BMI will go after restaurants for royalties from jukeboxes, or bands playing cover songs -- and even your kitchen crew playing their favorite tunes while they work, if it's audible to the customers. That was the stipulation, it had to be quiet enough not to beard from the dining room. Of course, we wanted it that way anyway so as not to interfere with the house music, but on lulls sometimes sound travels.

I thought it had gone too far at that point, without the madness from the RIAA and their relatively recent infringement suits. They've been out of line for a while, folks!

It has been like this for a long time..

[Boap]

That is why most stores use Muzak so they do not get sued for royalties. I worked for a store in 1986 that had to move in this direction as they were sued by the recording industry and they went to Muzak.

Re:Somebody please, stop the madness

[Capsaicin]

Even though this is occurring in another country, this may give them some sort of precedent ...

Here in Australia, this is already long the established (APRA v Tolbush [1986]), I'm surprised that it is not already so in the UK. In Tolbush an agent from the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) asked for a car radio to be demonstrated in a shop, and when the shop keeper turned the radio on he got sued for making an infringing public performance (how that was not authorisation I don't know).

It's seems a little odd that the RIAA hasn't set this up in the US yet. Maybe they are waiting to get one of their congressmen/senators to enact it legislatively rather throwing the dice in court?

Re:It's the law

[JustShootMe]

That's why laws like that don't make sense. But they do exist in some forms and in some jurisdictions.

Re:Somebody please, stop the madness

[Epsillon]

Actually, the BPI is the UK equivalent of the RIAA. The PRS should really be called the Public Performance Rights Society as they deal with things like taxing live groups doing cover songs for money in pubs, jukeboxes and anything entertainment related being used in a publicly accessible place. Yes, they're bastards, but these are not the bastards you're looking for.

You do realize that businesses that play

[Anonymous Coward]

music in the US, must pay licensing fees to ASCAP and BMI.

Re:Somebody please, stop the madness

[delong]

You still missed the point. The point is that it doesn't matter how many are listening to a single radio because the broadcaster pays the royalty, full stop.

Re:Somebody please, stop the madness

[unlametheweak]

digitalunity:

The answer is simple. When their actions become so brash that the generally uninformed public becomes annoyed with them, people will simply stop buying their products and the **AA mafia will go broke. Vancorps:

is there an example in history where a corporation's behavior was changed using this sort of strategy? Something similar to this happened in India when Indians where forced to buy salt from the British. Mahatma Gandhi went to the ocean and picked up a handful of salt and told people to take it for free.

Reference:
http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/India/SaltMarch.html

Re:Somebody please, stop the madness

[Anonymous Coward]

[i]Where do the extents of a 'public performance' end? Radios on in cabs?"[/i]

Actually in Finland it's already coming that you have to pay royalties in cabs.

Muzak is not a slangword

[CaptainZapp]

Muzak (or elevator music or bland background music, for those that don't know the slang)

Actually Muzak (http://muzak.com) is a corporation, which exists for decades. Their mission is to grace humanity with this fine music you can hear in elevators and shopping malls throughout the world.

"Music" that is filtered and frequency optimized so it doesn't disturb your lift riding -, or shopping experience.

So no, even if a lot of people think so, Muzak is not a slang word for rotten music. Then again: The general public has hardly any dealings with Muzak LLC (apart from being forced to listen to this shit).

Re:Muzak is not a slangword

[A coward on a mouse]

So no, even if a lot of people think so, Muzak is not a slang word for rotten music.

Muzak *is* a slang word for rotten music to precisely the degree that people think it is. It is horrifying to contemplate for some (myself included), but the rules of language are whatever people believe they are. People break the rules all the time; if a large enough number of people start breaking a given rule the same way, their way of doing things becomes a new rule, at least within whatever group(s) those people have sufficient influence.

Short version: languages change in ways that cannot be controlled. Methinks that he that dost not realize the truth of this will be considered a pedant anon.

Well known law in the UK

[evilandi]

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.