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UK Copyright Holder Getting Creative in Quest for Royalties

By soulxtc

Searching for any place where more than one person may hear music at a time, be it a kicthen, office, or school play. The UK Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS), a copyright holder group that collects royalty payments for songwriters and composers, is going after workplaces where anybody other than the one listening to a radio can hear it. “If anybody else can hear your radio it will count as a performance and you will have to pay us for a licence,” said a rep from the PRS in a telephone conversation with Dick Robson, who runs a water purification firm in Linton, Kent. The aggressive tactics are raising the eyebrows of members of the UK Parliament who see it as nothing more than an attempt to fight dwindling CD sales on the backs of average citizens who may not even need to the licenses, but are pressured into obtaining them for fear of expensive litigation. Said Robson: “There is usually only me here and I like to have nice relaxing music.

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on February 03, 2009 (boomark / email).