Loud Music: Copyright Violation

[mwfanelli2]

A car repair shop in Scotland has been taken to court for copyright violation. Why? The radio was loud enough for more than one person to hear it. That constitutes a "public performance" which is a copyright violation. No joke.

How long will it be for the brain-dead MPAA and RIAA to use the same slimy tactics?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...st/7029892.stm

[another view]

Unbelieveable... Apparently like a lot of people, I stopped in Best Buy on Sunday. What I needed was at the back of the store, so I walked past a bunch of stereos and TV's that were on for demonstration and of course loud enough that they drew attention. How many people saw and heard them, in just one of their stores in the 10 minutes I was there?

[Asylum Steve]

How long will it be for the brain-dead MPAA and RIAA to use the same slimy tactics?...

Nice to know we're not the only country with silly laws...

Actually, this would be an almost impossible road to go down for those groups, at least if a radio is involved. If a song is being played on the radio in this country, the recording and publishing groups have already gotten their royalties through agreements with the broadacast companies...

What they're primarily after is unlicenced use (and file sharing) of their recordings...

[walterick]

They better not hang outside my window

[Skyman]

the camera shop i used to work in played music in the store. it has long been compulsory in Australia to pay royalties to apra (Australian Publishing and Recording Artists Association) for such uses of music. the fee is relatively nominal and whilst many many places ignore it, I don't see the trouble in giving the artist their due and since apra is run as a not for profit organisation i don't have a problem with it. incidentally there are several companies locally (i nearly had a job as a video editor with one of them) who provide licensed for broadcast content on dvd for jukeboxes and on cd. Most of them have "off the shelf" discs that are very general in their appeal like '90s music or "r'n'b" or you can order customised playlists to suit your audience / customers tastes. It is one thing for staff to be listening to the radio and another entirely to potentially earn money (or increasing sales) from the music.

[another view]

It is one thing for staff to be listening to the radio and another entirely to potentially earn money (or increasing sales) from the music.

Exactly. I'm pretty sure it's the same over here, also thinking of music that is played when a caller is on hold. Some places have a local radio station on but that makes it pretty obvious that they're not complying.

[JohnMur]

Crazy! This is taking the letter of the law a bit too far