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Restaurateur Loses Copyright Suit To BMI

Posted by samzenpus on from the pay-up dept.

Frosty P writes: BMI claims Amici III in Linden, New York didn't have a license when it played four tunes in its eatery one night last year, including the beloved "Bennie and the Jets" and "Brown Sugar," winning $24,000 earlier this year, and over $8,200 in attorney's fees. Giovanni Lavorato, who has been in business for 25 years, says the disc DJ brought into the eatery paid a fee to play tunes. "It's ridiculous for me to pay somebody also," he said. "This is not a nightclub. This is not a disco joint . . . How many times do they want to get paid for the stupid music?"

7 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. Surprise! by tnk1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How many times do they want to get paid for the stupid music?"

    As many times as they possibly can.

    Obviously.

    1. Re:Surprise! by s.petry · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A couple sentences on a piece of paper with a signature would have sent the Thugs after the "disc jockey Disc Jockey" he hired instead of taking it himself.

      I think you should check history before making such statements. The RIAA has a history of going after who will have the money to pay, not the responsible party. Perhaps the contract would have been used for the RIAA to go after both parties, but the guy with money always gets sued. Who has money here, the DJ or the business owner? Hint: I have not seen a wealth DJ ever.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  2. How many times? by NoKaOi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How many times do they want to get paid for the stupid music?

    Infinite.

    1. Re:How many times? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Open your windows and play it as loud as you can.

      What you do in your own home is private consumption.

      Really need to start tacking RICO act violations to the RIAA ASCAAP, BMI, etc...

      They are just thieves out to steal as much money as they can without benefiting anyone but themselves.

    2. Re:How many times? by TheDarkener · · Score: 5, Insightful

      50% of BMI fees go to the songwriters

      *Which* songwriters is the real question.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  3. Re:Trifling by tompaulco · · Score: 5, Insightful

    . Stories like this one is why I will never feel bad about piracy.

    It should make you feel bad about being a pirate. By pirating music, you let the company know that you enjoy their music and are too cheap to pay for it. Instead, you should abstain from it altogether. If nobody bought it and nobody pirated it, they would get a clue.

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
  4. Re:From the TFA by The+Rizz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not like the license is all that expensive or hard to obtain or that services to pipe in music don't exist. I don't feel bad for this guy, likely all he needed to do is stop playing copyrighted stuff when he was made aware of the violation and then obtain a license as required if he needed to continue.... Or, BUY a music service for his business from somebody and let them keep up with the licenses.

    If you would RTFA, or even the summary, you'd notice that he already did that. He hired a DJ, who had already paid licensing fees to play the music.

    At issue here is that the licenses were already paid through the DJ, and BMI was demanding that they get paid again because ... well, that's the question, really ... why should he pay the licensing fees again when the music is already licensed?