Friday, December 19, 2008
St. Peter's Bar Faces Copyright Lawsuit
This sure make copyrights seem like a complicated thing. It seems the the owner of a venue has to pay for the rights to use songs in karaoke and performances and such. Although not juke boxes; those are paid by the juke box company. I would think the bands would have to pay the copyright for a song they performed but the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) says that it is up to the venue. The fines faced by bar owner Marty Megl could range from $750 to $30000 for each of four songs the ASCAP alleged were played in Megl's bar that date back to 2003. That kind of fine could get pretty steep for a small business owner. Megl "admits he did not purchase a license but says the responsibility should rest elsewhere, such as with the bands he hires." I don't see why the bands aren't the ones having to pay. They are the ones performing the songs. And I didn't even know you had to have a license to play karaoke music either but I guess it makes sense since bars usually pay people to come in and run the karaoke. I would think that would lie with the karaoke company also.
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2 comments:
I guess this answers our question about how these cover bands can afford to do business. So does the owner have to pay a different fee each time or can they buy a license for a year?
They way the article read I think he just has to buy a license for a year but depending on who owns the songs depends on who he has to pay. So he may have to purchase several licenses. Does that suck or what?
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