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ASCAP unlicensed venue-cancel gig?
- Thread starter LPStephens
- Start date
svtb15
Inactive
- Mar 22, 2004
- 13,004
- 4,741
- Disclosures
- I play it all. Whatever works for the gig. Q+
Nothing worse than a bunch of JackBoot thugs taking the fun out of playing Mustang Sally...
screw'em
screw'em
svtb15
Inactive
- Mar 22, 2004
- 13,004
- 4,741
- Disclosures
- I play it all. Whatever works for the gig. Q+
oh, and then they kicked our dog, and stole our bible.
It's just shady practices by them, and nothing you can do...either pay up, or pay the consequences. In our area, they recently (as in, August) "discovered" a venue that had been blithely operating for the past 3 years. No talk of 'blanket policy', they're being threatened with lawsuits right out of the gate, not retroactive payments, but retroactive fines...I'm guessing the PRO rep had a bad cup of coffee that morning.
It's just shady practices by them, and nothing you can do...either pay up, or pay the consequences. In our area, they recently (as in, August) "discovered" a venue that had been blithely operating for the past 3 years. No talk of 'blanket policy', they're being threatened with lawsuits right out of the gate, not retroactive payments, but retroactive fines...I'm guessing the PRO rep had a bad cup of coffee that morning.
I have some knowledge regarding PRO's and it's very mafia-like. These 3 organizations (ASCAP, BMI, and Sesac) make up an oligopoly with no transparency. They shakedown virtually ALL businesses that may or may not play music with threats of lawsuits if they don't pay up.
For those who think the fees are simply a few hundred dollars a year that may be true if your club is the size of a closet. Their fee structures are convoluted at best and when you pay one the other two come calling shortly thereafter. I'm not against royalty payment at all though. I think songwriters should get paid by venues that play their music. These 3 companies are not the answer though. Their interests are no longer aligned with the vast majority of songwriters.
To determine who gets paid these three companies monitor a small fraction of radio and other outlets and pay songwriters based on that. Unless you are writing hits you pretty much aren't going to get paid through their due diligence.
There should be a simple and transparent method by which a business can "get legal". The current situation is doing more harm than good.
For those who think the fees are simply a few hundred dollars a year that may be true if your club is the size of a closet. Their fee structures are convoluted at best and when you pay one the other two come calling shortly thereafter. I'm not against royalty payment at all though. I think songwriters should get paid by venues that play their music. These 3 companies are not the answer though. Their interests are no longer aligned with the vast majority of songwriters.
To determine who gets paid these three companies monitor a small fraction of radio and other outlets and pay songwriters based on that. Unless you are writing hits you pretty much aren't going to get paid through their due diligence.
There should be a simple and transparent method by which a business can "get legal". The current situation is doing more harm than good.
Parodies are considered derivative works under US Copyright Law, but are protected as fair use under Section 107 as long as the parody is at least in some part for purposes of commentary or critism of the original work.
Too bad, I was going to suggest doing only originals.
But another point: any originals you write DO have copyright, copyright exists from the moment of the creation of a work.
Registering a copyright, and publishing the music, are merely ways to establish a legal footing from which to protect your copyright from infringement. But your originals are copyrighted by you from the moment of their inception.
Fighting the system? Those songwriters should get paid. Ask the bar owner if she would be cool with just anybody coming in, ordering a drink, and then not paying because they're "fighting the system."
I don't know if you could actually be liable, but I'd bail on this gig. Sounds like it could be a very sticky situation.
