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Singer In Grocery Store Ordered To Pay Royalties
yog writes "An assistant at a grocery store in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, was ordered by the Performing Right Society (PRS) to obtain a performer's license and to pay royalties because she was informally singing popular songs while stocking groceries. The PRS later backed down and apologized. This after the same store had turned off the radio after a warning from the PRS. We have entered an era where music is no longer an art for all to enjoy, but rather a form of private property that must be regulated and taxed like alcohol. 'Music to the ears' has become 'dollars in the bank'."
What's next? Concise Oxford charging for words explained in the dictionary?
As much as I think this kind of enforcement is ridiculous, before we try to get rid of it we should try to put it to good use: someone needs to get the scientologists to start singing top hits as part of their 'religion'. That would create a (lawyer) fight I would pay to watch.
My webcomic
It'd all work itself out if everytime someone exerted their copyright, the person they're exterting it against had a chance to go to court. And if the copyright holder fails, no more copyright. It instantly becomes public domain. The fact they can lose it would stop alot of this crap..
She's an old f'*k that sings, hence disturbing my personal belief of finding my true love while grocery-shopping.
In the fuits section.
While testing melons.
Juicy... melons ... garrrr ...
Just for this, I'm gonna download TWICE as many mp3 tonight to show those corporate FAT CATS they can't push around the little guy!
...the estate of John Cage to sue everyone all the time for unlicensed performance of 4'33"
The answer is yes. Soon everyone must wear brain scanners to make sure that every song you hear in your head is paid for. Also, if you inadvertently hear a song whether it's in a dream or from someone else's radio, the brain scanner will pick that up too and you must pay for that too. If you're pregnant, you must pay for each fetus. The deaf will be fitted with a recording devices so that they can pay for the songs they would have heard if they weren't deaf. If you die, you are required to pay for all the songs you hear in the afterlife with your remaining assets.
This shit doesn't and can't happen in the US.
I've been drinking
That was obvious.
You meant "awful", not "aweful". I suppose the problem was that you didn't want to pay Concise Oxford?
I r si lolcat languge r cheep in futuar! lol moar invizubul spulling!
Not really much difference between the current system and outright anarchy when people can sue you to death.
Replace "bastard feudal lord from hell" with "giant corporation", and "peasant" with "individual" and you will find things have really not much changed.
I love that quote - so much so I "borrowed" it for my email sig.... WHOM do I send money to? You, or /. or my local ISP?
They're vastly overcompensating for lost revenues.
Too right, how many people would say "I was going to buy that music but now I can just go and listen to the guy stacking shelves in the grocery store to sing it instead"?
There is something called noise pollution.
In todays world we are bombarded with auditory and visual stimuli every waking moment. There is hardly any place where you can just listen to your own pulse as your heart keeps beating or even just nothing.
Unwanted "music" is classified as noise. After all, wether someone is playing a piano or pushing it down the stairs at 2am would be irrelevant to you unless you happen to be standing in the stairway or own the piano. Same thing when shopping; You are trying to remember if you need milk or eggs. You are not interested in who let the dogs out or what Jay-z is doing in Broklyn. You just want to find the damn cereal and go home.
After finally coming home from a day of intense concentration I don't turn on the radio. I don't turn on the tv. Instead I enjoy some nice, well deserved and for now completely free silence.
Try it sometime. When you finally put on your favourite track it sounds much better when your mind is clear.
Listen to "Sean Locke's 15 minutes of misery" sometime. A radio comedy from the 1990s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lGufUM7xM
One of the characters is a PRS dream come true. :)
The british are so f*Cked up! Who do these people think they are? Royalty?
much will depend on how much Clackmannanshire is willing to pay. The Coca Cola company has paid through the nose to give their beverages the highes ranking (the spell checker will recommend as a cheaper option over 'water') . If Clackmannanshire wants to have its name spelled correctly it'll cost them. Until then the spell checker will propose "somewhere near Edinburgh".
Wow, you are clever. Thank you for your stimulating addition to the discussion at hand.
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
Nobody back then was subjected to the Spice Girls. Luxury...
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
Did anybody check and see if there was ever a greeting card that already said what their apology did? Did they pay royalties to Hallmark for this?