cbs13.com — A restaurant is being sued in federal court by a group representing songwriters for playing tunes written by Van Morrison, Dwight Yoakam and others without a license.B-M-I says damages could reach 750 dollars per song.
Jan 24, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountJan 24, 2006
music should be aloud to be played in public spaces for no cost it's not like there charging people to listen to the music it's just background noise. unacceptable.
mofokerJan 25, 2006
PLAY IT TILL THEY CATCH U ..THEN STOP....LOL...I REALLY DONT CARE..CUZ MOST OF THE TIME IM PAYING ATTENTION TO MY FRIENDS AT A RESTAURANT...OR THE FOOD...SOMETIMES I TAKE MY IPOD WITH ITS SPEAKERS AN PLAY IT LOW FOR US.....BETTER THAN SOME OF THE STUFF THEY PLAY AT SOME PLACES...OH YEA TORRENTZ RULE MONKEY BOY !!!!!!
ssahaJan 25, 2006
Holy f**k!!! Where the hell is this country going with all this s**t?
mrderikJan 26, 2006
Bottom Line - BMI & ASCAP have a "License" to extort money from honest business owners. As a hotel owner we are forced to pay these guys each year. Here is but one fine example of how they operate. A few years ago ASCAP wrote us and said the original 'Licensing agreement" that we signed with them five years ago needed to be updated. They were coming out with a new contract form but it would not be ready until after our current contract expired so they needed to send us an 'extension agreement' to cover us until the new one was prepared, which might take a few months. O.K. Fine whatever send it to me. When I got this extension agreement I actually read the thing. It said plainly that we not only agree to extend the current contract but that WE ALSO AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THE NEW CONTRACT AND AGREE TO SIGN AND RETURN IT TO THEM ONCE RECEIVED. I called them up and told them I would have to be completely insane to sign this extension since it obligated me to a contract I hadn't seen yet! I will only agree to extend the current one and I would be happy to modify the extension to that effect, sign and forward it to them. Without even a pause they threatened me by saying that I could not alter the extension and if we fall out of contract we would be liable for damages per song, blah, blah, blah. I told them that's too bad, there is no way we were signing this extension. Furthermore, once our contract does expire, we're not paying for that period of time until we get a new contract AND have proper time to review it and sign. They squaked and wrote more nasty, threatening letters, but eventually did produce a new contract that was just as unfair and one-sided as the old one, but we did sign it, you have to or else they will fine you and you will have to pay. We DID NOT however, pay for that period of time that we were out of contract and they never forced that issue. Bunch of major league A-HOLES all of them!
noodhoogJan 26, 2006
Want some music that doesn't have smallprint requiring you to bend over and have a large metal pinapple jammed up your arse?Try this: <a class="user" href="http://www.archive.org/details/audio">http://www.archive.org/details/audio</a>Lots of free music there. All legal, all un-DRM'd, all untouched by the vile grip of the RIAA. There's a massive archive of live recorded shows (with permission of the bands), there are a bunch of record labels that put all their stuff up for free downloads.. old 78 recordings, all sorts.
retspanJan 26, 2006
double-z - You say "money sucking leeches"?Do you require a paycheck? Then why shouldn't songwriters?
themesbJan 27, 2006
There's a club/coffeshop/restaurant in Minneapolis called the Acadia Cafe (<a class="user" href="http://www.acadiacafe.com/)">http://www.acadiacafe.com/)</a> that only plays the music of local artists (who sign a copyright waiver) on the stereo. They don't even let bands that play there do covers. I'm not sure if they've been sued, or if they're just afraid of being sued, but I must say that it's kind of refreshing to hear something different when you enter the service sector.
lkbmJan 21, 2007
$100 per year, eh? 525 948.766 minutes per year at 4 minutes per song = 131 487.191 songs. So you're suggesting $0.000760530355 per song.Okay, so most restaurants aren't open 24/7/365. If just 8/24/365, that's still under a third of a cent per song.Though if you're talking about the damaged, then I agree $750 is too much.
jbmont60Feb 16, 2007
Most restraurants and stores are exempt from fees from playing the radio:<a class="user" href="http://www.ascap.com/legislation/legis_qa.html">http://www.ascap.com/legislation/legis_qa.html</a>"What exactly does the new law exempt from licensing fees?Businesses that perform music only from licensed radio, television, cable and satellite sources, that do not re-transmit beyond their establishments, and do not charge admission, are exempted as follows: All restaurants, bars and grills that are smaller than 3,750 gross square feet, and all other retail establishments that are smaller than 2,000 gross square feet, are exempt from paying license fees to songwriters, composers and music publishers, but only for their use of radio and TV music.Businesses whose square footage exceeds the amounts listed also qualify for the exemption if they use six or fewer speakers with no more than four speakers in any one room or use audiovisual equipment consisting of no more than four TV's, with no more than one TV in each room, and no TV having a diagonal screen size greater than 55 inches, together with the same speaker restrictions."
rodwilcoNov 7, 2008
that is not true that they don't care if it is CD or radio, they do not charge for radio unless it is rebroadcast per the statutes of the legal code, otherwise a restaurant can play the radio all they want. now if it is a CD, they will get you.