PRS's Latest Trick: Demanding Money From Shop Assistant Who Was Singing At Work

from the performance-fees dept

Sometimes, these collection societies write the jokes themselves, it seems. PRS, the music collection society in the UK, famous for going way over the line in demanding money from people (remember the time it demanded a woman pay up for playing music for her horses? Or how it calls small businesses and if they hear any music in the background, demand payment?), has done it again. It threatened a shop assistant for singing out loud (public performance!) while stacking the grocery shelves, demanding she pay £1,000 for the privilege. Of course, why was she singing? Because PRS had already threatened the owner for having a radio -- so he got rid of the radio.

Of course, as with the horse debacle, once PRS realized the PR nightmare it had created for itself, it apologized (and sent some flowers). But, that hardly makes the situation better. Why is PRS demanding such things in the first place? Given the long trail of similar examples, this isn't just some random one-off accident. It's basically how PRS operates. And that's because it's structured its business so that its "investigators" aren't really "investigators" at all, but sales people. They have every incentive to get as many companies to pay up as possible, no matter if there's any real performance at issue.

On top of that, the very fact that PRS forced this shopowner to take away his radio should show how backwards and braindead PRS's strategy is. The radio in the shop isn't a "public performance." It's not the reason people go to the shop. But it did help promote the musicians PRS supposedly represents. Not any more. Musicians in the UK should be furious at PRS for making it more difficult to get their music heard, let alone for threatening someone for singing while stocking the shelves.

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Will The RIAA Shut Down Public School Kids From Singing Pop Songs On YouTube?

from the questions,-questions... dept

Dave Title points our attention to a public elementary school in New York City (PS22) that is making news for putting together a chorus that sings various pop songs (and sings them well!). The videos are quickly spreading around YouTube:

Apparently, Stevie Nicks was so touched by seeing them sing the Fleetwod Mac song above, that she's asked the group to sing at a Fleetwod Mac show in NYC. But, of course, Title wonders how the RIAA feels about all of this:

However, this seems like a video ripe for takedown by the RIAA. These kids did not get the rights to perform this song and they are now spreading their cover for free! This is just the sort of activity the record industry seems to keen on stopping - whether it is a chorus of school-kids or a couple of people doing a karaoke version of the latest Beyonce tune.

Of course, the idea that this video could somehow create a direct negative impact to the sales of Fleetwood Mac songs is simply absurd. That won't stop groups like the RIAA from spitting out takedown notices and DMCA claims faster than you can say, "hey, that was cute."

Admittedly, the world of copyright law is beyond complicated but we need to find a way to let people legally play with all the content released into the world. People are going to play with it no matter what so it’s really just a question of whether or not energy is spent prosecuting people or facilitating them. I wonder which choice would make more money in the long run.

Indeed. Hopefully the RIAA knows better, but, remember when the Girl Scouts were threatened for singing songs around the campfire?

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Charity Threatened For Children Singing Without Paying Royalties; History Repeats Itself

from the public-domain dept

About a decade ago, the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) made news for idiotically threatening the Girl Scouts for singing songs around campfires without paying licensing fees. The resulting publicity forced ASCAP to back down, but gave the group a huge black eye for being copyright bullies. This story coincided with a growing interest in copyright issues, and many credit the story with generating initial interest from many into copyright policy issues. You would think that this story would have made its way across the pond to the UK and its Performing Rights Society (PRS), the UK equivalent of ASCAP. Apparently not. PRS, who was last seen around here badgering a chain of auto mechanics for having its mechanics listen to music so loudly that customers can hear (but without paying for a performance license), is apparently now demanding royalties from a charity that happens to have children singing carols at a Christmas concert. Apparently PRS first visited the charity to threaten them over a similar issue to the auto mechanics. The building has a tea room, and workers in the kitchen apparently had the radio on too loud, leading to a demand for performance royalties from the PRS. That resulted in further discussions about what other music occurs on the premises, and the PRS's demand for a license for the caroling. This all seems quite similar to the Girl Scout campfire fiasco, with the added wonders of a Scrooge-like Christmas twist. Either way, it's yet another example of a dying industry trying to greedily squeeze ever last penny out of every possible place before it dies for good.

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