Firstly, THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE U.S.! Please will you Americans realise that you are not the only country on the planet. So anything we discuss now about US copyright law has no relevance to the larger debate about the UK barber.

Secondly, limiting the copyright on an artist’s work for them is *not* going to encourage them to make more work for the public. If they want to create work for the public, they can just do that and give away the copyright to public bodies straight away.

I understand what you are saying about the wording, though the fact that it is securing the exclusive rights for the authors/inventors, even if only for a limited time, shows that it is about respecting that they do have rights to their work. In the UK, copyright generally expires 50 years after the work is published/released:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright,_Designs_and_Patents_Act_1988

I don’t know (or in this particular case care) what the period is for the US at the moment.

If there were actual double dipping taking place, then I would agree that it’s wrong. But as I’ve explained, it’s not. The PRS license that the barber legally requires is not the same as the PPL license that he legally requires, nor are either of those the same as the PRS and PPL licenses that the radio station is required to have.

If you can’t/won’t recognise the difference, arguing with YOU is a complete waste of time.

And there is no issue here of anyone charging for music that they are not the rights holder of. As in the original article that this page is taken from, the barber was found to have been playing particular tracks that were the PPL *WAS* a representative of.

“So you believe there is no problem with denying an individual the ability to make use of their own products (radio) to capture public goods (radio waves) on their own property?”

It’s irrelevant really as that’s not what’s happened here. Radio waves specifically sent by someone are not ‘public goods’, they are copyrighted intellectual property, just like physical or digital recordings.

As for what you can do on your own property, the law has never worked like that. In neither the US nor the UK nor many other countries can you murder someone on your own property, for instance (there are sometime exceptions for self-defence but they apply whether in public or private). If you are in a country, you have to obey the laws or face the consequences.

“You say this as if before he bought the radio he had to sign an agreement. He did not.”

He didn’t need to. UK laws regarding broadcast of copyrighted work to the public already exist. It is every individual’s and every business’s responsibility to know the laws of the country they are in. Ignorance does not hold up in court (unless you are very lucky!).

“When the Mafia stops by your shop and says you need to pay up for “protection” to make sure “nothing bad happens,” does the store owner who pays up “agree” with the mafia?”

This has no relevance to this case. Nobody forced the barber to play the music. He just got fined for not having the legally required license for it. He chose to play the music.

“My point all along has been how nonsensical the law is. You have not responded to that. Any time anyone calls you on it you resort back to “but that’s the law!” That’s not an answer.”

OK, so why do you think it is nonsensical, sorry? Do you not agree that copyright holders should be able to charge as they like for the use of their work? Do you not agree that broadcasting copyrighted work in public should be treated differently than doing so in private?

“Yes, and once we had a law that said slavery was okay and that alcohol was not. And you would have been among those who said “the law is the law, so deal with it.”

No, I’d’ve said if you don’t like it, simply don’t partake in it. Comparing slavery and prohibition to music broadcast licensing is ridiculous though.

Charging fees is hardly the same as killing people. Get a grip!

Yes, it counts, according to the UK legislation:

http://www.prsformusic.com/users/businessesandliveevents/musicforbusinesses/Pages/doineedalicence.aspx

Note that they do do exceptions for some shops (section 4).

Would it be different if someone brought in a portable radio? Probably not.

If I write a song and I let the PPL take care of my publishing royalties (for a fee out of the income they obtain for me), then they have the authority to act whenever any recordings of my song are broadcast.

He tried to comply by signing up with the Performing Rights Society, but not with Phonographic Performance Limited. It was an unfortunate mistake but a mistake nevertheless. I don’t think any legal speak hid anything from him – we don’t know how he found out the PRS but he ought to have found out about the PPL at the same time. Or maybe the PRS should have reminded him about the PPL. But it’s not their responsibility to do that – it’s his.

I’ve made the odd mistake with my own company, and I’ve paid for it. I didn’t go to the media about it though.

I guess not. If he had just played music that was signed up to the PRS or PPL, they wouldn’t have been able to fine him.

No, because if you have headphones on, for instance, you are not broadcasting it to others, and more importantly, there are various exceptions to the legislation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright,_Designs_and_Patents_Act_1988#Miscellaneous

Or to be fair, just blame your parents as they will have decided where you are born…

“In Mississippi, for example, I can legally kill someone if I catch them vandalizing my car.”

Really? The state law still thinks that’s OK?! Does it happen often?

“OK, so why do you think it is nonsensical, sorry?

We’re 250 comments in and you still haven’t figured it out?”

Nope, I’m afraid not. It makes perfect sense to me that if you play the song that I wrote and my friend recorded to the public at your business premises (which enhances your working conditions and/or your customer satisfaction), that we are each paid at the amounts that we have set, and if we want to use agencies to help monitor this and collect the fees, what’s wrong with that?

“how a gov’t granted agency with gov’t set prices has anything to do with your claim that copyright holders get to charge what they want”

Um, well, the copyright holders have signed agreements with that agency, that’s how. Either they have chosen the rates themselves, or they’ve agreed to the rates of the agency. In any case, an agreement, that they had a choice about, is in place.

“I believe that the market sets the price — and that’s the intersection of supply and demand. A rights holder can try to set the price, but if the product is in abundant supply, then that price gets pushed down by the market. But the government has stepped in and denied market forces in htis situation.”

Not true – there’s nothing stopping another company starting their own agency. The law doesn’t give any special privileges to the PRS or PPL, they are just the most popular services of their kind in the UK and because they cover the vast majority of popular music and have agreements with lots of public venues, it makes sense to sign up with them either as an artist or broadcaster.

“Turning on a radio is not ‘broadcasting’.”

Sorry but if you are running a business and the public can hear the licensed music on the radio at your premises, then it is broadcasting in so much that you need a license to do it legally. Whatever the term used.

And my ‘just don’t do it’ argument was not ‘just don’t break the law’, but in fact ‘don’t do the thing that you don’t want to pay for’. It’s a free market – if you don’t like the price of a product (or in this case licensing a product), you don’t have to buy it at all.

Fine, maybe the PPL needs to a better job of making sure everyone is aware that they represent a lot of popular music. But you have to be pretty naive if you just assume you can do what you like with someone else’s music just because it’s on the radio. I’m not saying you need to read all the laws, but I do find it odd that if he found out about the PRS, he somehow missed the PPL, as they will be listed in similar places.

No, you don’t need the licenses – the business does as its their premises!

And it’s not really a case of ‘suing’, they just need to issue the fines, which it seems they are gradually doing at the moment. If people don’t want to pay the fines, they can object and only then will the PPL potentially take them to court. The law that comes into play is that you need permission of the copyright holder to play their music in public – I doubt that one is going to be easily changed.