Now its illegal to play a radio in public view?
I story popped up in the Inq here http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/10/15/mechanics-sued-listening-radio
It seems a chain of mechanic service businesses is being sued by the PRS in Britain. According to the story, it appears that PRS wants cash for damages because the music played by personal radios was in earshot of other mechanics and customers. That, they claim, is a violation of copyright by public performance.
P2P I can understand. I'm not sure I can agree with the illegality of making MP3's of my CD's for use on my iPod (if I had one), or of making CD's out of the MP3's I purchased to play in my car.
Could it be that playing one's radio, featuring an otherwise public broadcast, can even be considered a problem? What if the customer's radio were tuned to the same station? Would that suddenly make it legal?
What about all those car stereos we can hear before we can even see the car?
What if, by some strange chance, this case wins against the defendant?
How about a boom box at a pool?
What about playing my home stereo with the windows open?
Public performance of ringtones?
Movies played in department stores that sell televisions?
Radios playing music on the car stereo display at Walmart?
I'm stunned.
[1377 byte] By [
JVene] at [2007-11-20 11:26:24]
# 2 Re: Now its illegal to play a radio in public view?
I don't know how things are going in in Britan or US. In Romania, it's illegal to use radio for commercial purposes if you don't have a license from the radio broadcaster. In other words, you can listen to any radio channel at home, in your car, etc. but if you have a fast food and turn the radio on for all your clients to listen to it, it's illegal without a license from the radio broadcaster(s). Of course, there are royalty-free broadcasters too.
But what I read about this case, it's something taken to the extreme absurd.
cilu at 2007-11-9 13:03:14 >
# 4 Re: Now its illegal to play a radio in public view?
An awful situation if it gets worse, but a solution to the pool party boom box, is you just got to make sure everyone at the party owns each song that is played, easy! - hmmm...
I think copyright law, or whatever this would be called goes too far sometimes.
# 5 Re: Now its illegal to play a radio in public view?
This whole copyright crud is killing the music industry. Its destroying fans and destroying profits. I mean c'mon... does the RIAA and whoever REALLY think they can stop piracy? Riiiight...
If someone wants to rip music, and they have the knowledge do build software or other stuff to do it, then your not gonna stop em. Stupid suits
# 6 Re: Now its illegal to play a radio in public view?
And I think the undustry really doesn't understand the one most commonly stated concept when it comes to arguing for piracy -
A lot of fans who download music often would never buy, or can't buy that particular piece of music anyway.
When they download something that they wouldn't previously have bought, sometimes they come to like it and eventually buy the album because sometimes buying the album is nice, and if not, they inevitably spread the word about a song or bands existance.
# 7 Re: Now its illegal to play a radio in public view?
Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails both said "screw the music industry, steal our music anyway you can". I was always a fan of NiN, even bigger fan now, lol. That just goes to show that some of the artists aren't just in it for the money, they really enjoy what they do.
