(UK) PRS sues over loud radios, claims copyright infringement

[MKTerra]

Performing Rights Society sues Kwik-Fit over staff radios (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7029892.stm)


A car repair firm has been taken to court accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work.

The action against the Kwik-Fit Group has been brought by the Performing Rights Society which collects royalties for songwriters and performers.

At a procedural hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh a judge refused to dismiss the £200,000 damages claim.
...And it's not even CDs or MP3s being played loudly, but public radio. I laughed my ass off, then wept for humanity.

[Sanagi]

Wow, I just realized I often play my CDs at a friend's house, for the listening pleasure of people who didn't pay for the music. I could be in trouble.

[Ben Morgan]

I can see the next headline, "Man sued for singing in publuc"

[Adam C]

And the judge didn't throw this blatant bit of extortion out?

[Spike-X]

I was thinking "It's gotta be a parody".

Then I saw the BBC URL.

Really, the thing that surprises me the most about this is not that they've done it, but that it's taken them this long to do it.

What next? Suing people with really loud car stereos? "The people you drive past can hear your music, AND THEY DIDN'T PAY FOR IT!!!"

How much further up their arses can these penny-pinching, beaureucratic parasites get their heads?

[Spike-X]

I was thinking "It's gotta be a parody".

Then I saw the BBC URL.

Really, the thing that surprises me the most about this is not that they've done it, but that it's taken them this long to do it.

What next? Suing people with really loud car stereos? "The people you drive past can hear your music, AND THEY DIDN'T PAY FOR IT!!!"

How much further up their arses can these penny-pinching, beaureucratic parasites get their heads?

[DonC]

Wasn't there a thread like this a couple months ago? Some con man tricked a bar owner into paying him because the bar owner was told he was in violation of copyright laws for playing the theme to Monday Night Football over his TV?

This really is ridiculous. The way I read this, the PRS is claiming a mechanic's playing the radio loudly went from simply listening to music to actually displaying it to the public, for lack of a better word. Isn't radio, by it's nature, a public display of music?

[Charles RB]

Oh come on. Do they want to piss off people and become hated for their inanity?

[Spike-X]

Somewhere, right now, there is a man in a suit who has never created a goddamn thing in his life, losing sleep over the idea that somebody, somewhere, is listening to music without putting money in his pocket.

[The Confessor]

Isn't radio, by it's nature, a public display of music?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I mean, I was always under the impression that radio stations had to pay for the right to publicly broadcast the records they play. So, surley PRS have got their artists' royalties from the radio station itself? :confused:

[mattx110]

umm, you all know radios aren't for listening right?!? they just look cool with dials and knobs and antennae

[hyzmarca]

Some say the copyright holders were provoked by the intrusion of humans into their natural habitat, that a live and let live policy is preferable to war with the PRS.

I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill 'em all!

[Percival]

This copyright thing is getting way, way, way outa hand....for christ's sake, listening to a radio at work? paying 14cents for every blank CD and a quarter for a DVD into the performers pocket? Marx was right...there's no way this system can sustain itself...soon the revolution will come and we, the people, will crush the fat pigs and build a paradise where we are all equal (though I suspect some will be more equal than others) and music will finally be free to enjoy for everyone.

[Sabrina_Fried]

As stupid and awful as this lawsuit is, I almost want it to succeed. Why? Think of the chilling effect!

- No more awful elevator music because the owners of the buildings would be afraid that the artists of the original song might hear the butchering that was done to their creations and sue them into next week.

- No more barely audible Top 40 crap piped into the malls, because it might affect the sales at the CD shops. Why pay for something if you can just hang out in the mall and listen to it for free?

- No more boom cars at 3am when you are trying to sleep, because the kid whose dad owns the car barely has enough cash to pay for his glass muffler, let alone his public performance licenses.

- Oh, and since radio listnership would drop even more, they would probably have to play even MORE ads per hour to break even. We'd probably get 5 minutes of commercials for every 3 minutes of music and/or inane dj blather.

Seriously, I don't see how suing a car repair firm becasue their employees use radios to brighen up the mood in their works areas, can be any good for the music industry or the artists it is supposed to support.

Sabrina

[Kevin M.]

This is the most retarded thing I have ever read on this site....sueing over playing a radio to loud, and claiming is as copyright infringement. Humanity is doomed!!

[Jinxer]

The Ministry of Music is tasked with enforcing laws prohibiting the unauthorized playing of music.

Big Brother is Love.

That is all.

[Spike-X]

paying 14cents for every blank CD and a quarter for a DVD into the performers pocket?

The performers' pocket? Pfft. They'd be the last ones to see any cash from that, as they always are once the parasites in suits get involved.