Scottish firm sued for blaring radios, infringing copyright
By Darren Murph 
posted October 14th 2007 5:27AM
posted October 14th 2007 5:27AM
Sure, you may get yourself a ticket from local police if you roll around with that in-car stereo cranked, but at least you're not being sued for £200,000 ($407,680). Unfortunately for the Edinburgh-based Kwik-Fit automotive repair center, it actually is being taken to court for that astronomical amount by the Performing Rights Society, which "collects royalties for songwriters and performers." The PRS alleges that "Kwik-Fit mechanics routinely used personal radios while working at locales across the UK and that music, protected by copyright, could be heard by colleagues and customers." Astoundingly, Lord Emslie ruled that the case could actually be heard, so we guess we'll be relying exclusively on headphones from here on out.[Via Slashdot]
In real life, Hugh Grant would still be poor while the music label makes millions of dollars off of his song.
What's funny is that, without knowing about this, my mom told me that BMI called her store to let her know that if they have a music system with more than 4 speakers, they need to start paying them for playing any music at all. Whether it's a cd, radio, or anything else.
Crap...do I owe the "Chocolate Rain" guy money now??? D'oh!
You would think that the music is meant to be broadcast and heard publicly, the music business is digging its own grave with its shady practices.
Hey! If they can't make money trying to sell crappy music maybe they can make some money suing people for stupid reasons.
When you say "crappy", I presume you mean [c]rap (as in, the "c" is silent), which isn't music at all but really just poetry... and pretty bad poetry usually? :D
To quote Simon "what. the. fuck." o.0
Don't the record industry already get royalties/revenue from the radio stations so they can play the music? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't all this licensing shit already 'built' into the price of music? Radio stations buy/lease/license/whateverthehelltheydo music to play. Fkc those greedy bastards.
Everybody knows that speakers were outlawed in the year 1337. :P
Wow i wonder how much i owe those guys,playing all my music for my friends... millions???
For once, I'm happy to live in the US. A suit of this type would be laughed out of court while the jury was walking to the deliberations room, they wouldn't even step foot in the jury room. There is such a culture here of listening to music while you work, that a conviction would never be handed down. I doubt even the most backwards of judges would rule in favor of the mafia on this one. Its simply too much a part of what America is. I'd love to see some RIAA goon walk into a sleepy little town in the midwest, or the deep south, and try to get this rammed through. Did anyone see the episode of Top Gear, when the brits rolled into a southern town with slogans painted on their cars? Ya, it'll be like that.
Lol nascar sucks, ect ect. They almost got STONED to death.. oh man i was fucking stoned last night! WOOO
Ok, i live in a 3rd world country(Pakistan) where tv and radio blare out from every window, where songs are openly available for download on sites for free, question is, artist only earn from cd, cassettes, and concerts, there is no RIAA, no DRM, and yet they are rolling in dough and are far from poverty, can't you see that the more restriction you put on entertainment, the less entertaining it becomes?
We live in such a tangled world.
time to stop buying music in any and all forms..
There was construction at my work, and the workers were playing avenged sevenfold. i overheard the song so they should be sued too. also, lets not forget anyone listening to music in their car with the windows down, they should be sued too because i can hear their music. Also, we need to sue all the people that bring a cd into best buy to test out an audio system before they buy it, i can hear their music too. Also, i think we need to sue 90% of teachers in this country as they play music from cd's to their class during silent reading time...
This actually isn't a new thing. Any office or factory (or any business - pub, bar, cafe, etc.) in the UK has to pay for a license for performance of music.
The PRS collects the royalties and then splits the cash up between the people who register for the service based on airplay (the big guys get most of this generally).
Basically, it's not a huge amount of cash - for an artist on a small indie label like mine you wouldn't get much cash, but the principle of the matter is that big companies (like KwikFit) should be paying their way just like everyone else - and artists should be paid for their work.
If a company benefits by making its customers happy by having music on in the background while they wait for their tyre to be changed they should pay just like everyone else has to, surely?
Or I guess you're suggesting the opposite - artists should be giving their work away for free by default?
Big guys saying 'oh we're exempt because of xyz' to something that is only about £200/year per site seems a bit off to me.
Honestly, I'd prefer not being forced to listen to what passes for "music" to someone else. As such, I don't really consider the sounds--radio or otherwise--emanating from some auto shop to be "entertainment". It certainly isn't public broadcasting (on the part of the auto shop)--the royalties for which have already been paid by the radio station (though not all royalties apply here, the ones in this case do). It is nothing more than incidental sound--loud, annoying, incidental sound. Any law which seriously categorizes this as "taxable" (that's what it is) is little more than extortion.
This law makes no sense at all. Don't radio stations already pay royalites for the songs that they play. And if you buy an artist's cd to play at your business that should cover you, you already paid for it. This is just another way to get even more money out of people.
No longer can one use the phrase "going for a song".
I'm sorry guys, I believe you misspelled that. It's P. R. I. C. S. Though I can't remember what the I and the C are for...
OK, sure, we pay the artists to play their radio songs in our workspaces. Now, where do we go to pick up our check for playing the station's sponsors' ads in those same workspaces? I figure they owe me a couple of grand just for my radio in the office...
I think shops like guitar shops are legally obliged to pay a fee to the PRI because customers may perform a well-known riff or tune whilst trying before they buy.
I'm from Edinburgh and it's just part of the workmen's culture to listen to the radio really loudly.
I have already thought of this madness before. There are always punk kids who likes to install huge subwoofers in their car and blast their music while driving by people, trying to show off their expensive parts/rich status. Well, let's see how rich you will be after I sue/turn you into the RIAA... Ha!
One of Kwik-Fit's problems is that if they 670 branches, each with a customer or two in at at time, they have to buy 670 licences, whereas a shopping mall, with 1,000 customers buys just one. That's unfair.
Also, this legislation dates back to the early 1900's when nobody envisaged commercial radio. If radio stations make more money from advertisers because their service is listened-to by more people in public places, then then the RIAA should be chasing them for more money.
There's a simple solution to this.
If it's based on whether customers are gaining entertainment value from the loud playing of a radio, simply stick BBC Radio 1 on.
No-one can possibly get any entertainment from that.
guys it's a mechanic shop...who in there right minds wants to turn on a radio for each individual worker? that's just wasting electricity. honestly, do you know how slow shops can get at times? both my parents are mechanics and i swear if they didn't have a radio going when they were working, they'd probably go mad. it's a work place not someone who's stealing music. the radio is a free public device intended to create enjoyment throughout people's day and you morons who are suing have no life.