Like I said, it's just a gripe. What a Scrooge of a job - driving around popping into businesses, just hoping to catch some office girls or bank tellers listening to a little radio they brought from home so you can sue the company they work for.
I don't think it's the people whose job it is to catch scofflaws that bothers you as much as it is the seemingly harmlessness of the offense. And of course it isn't "
some office girls or bank tellers listening to a little radio they brought from home," but the broadcasting of the music to a wider audience.
A point of information for everyone.
" , , ,a public performance of a radio broadcast of a musical composition by means of a live retransmission or a delayed audiotape transmission is generally not permitted without permission from the owners of copyright in the musical composition. This permission is normally obtained from the "performance rights" groups, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc., but may be obtained directly from the copyright owner as well.
source
Playing music illegally is no different than theft of merchandise, which is why there are penalties for violating copyright laws. That someone has to go around and make sure people aren't stealing intellectual and performance property is no different in kind than the night patrol cop checking businesses to make sure they're not being robbed. The onus of this enforcement doesn't belong on the enforcer, but those parties who try to cheat the owner of the work out of his due compensation.
9-10ths_Penguin said:
Actually, it doesn't work THAT way. The fact that a copyright holder has granted a radio station a licence to a work doesn't mean that they've granted any rights to *you* to redistribute it, including by pumping it into a workplace.
As an analogy, I could purchase the rights to perform a play, and then to perform the play, I secure a venue. This doesn't mean tbat tbe venue somehow magically acquires the right to have some other theatre company come in and perform the play without paying for it.
True, and there's a bit more to it all. The venue has to be named, its capacity indicated, number of planned performances, opening and closing dates, ticket price range, and whether or not it's a for profit or non-profit organization putting on the play. These factors all go into determining the licensing fee. Of course, one could still go ahead and purchase the rights, listing all the pertinent facts before securing the venue, but that would be pretty foolish in my opinion.