Music licensing companies come calling

Found on Florida Today on Sunday, 08 July 2007
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The performers, normally duos, mainly covered songs written and made famous by other musicians. There was no cover charge, no pay for the musicians, no limit to how long patrons could sit on a couch with their coffee, playing chess and enjoying the music.

Then a few months later, music industry giant ASCAP started calling and sending letters saying East Coast Coffee & Tea was in violation of copyright laws. The fee to continue the music was $400 a year.

Six months later, other music copyright companies began calling the Halls and demanding money. Most days there would be three or four phone calls from each company, Hall said.

When a songwriter signs with one of the licensing companies -- the country's three biggest are BMI, SESAC and ASCAP -- his or her music is copyrighted.

"It started 15 years ago when I had a guy come out to our other place, Cantina dos Amigos, and play Mexican music on his guitar on the patio," Andrus said. "They came after me for money. Are they really sending royalty checks to the songwriter in Mexico?"

The article itself has too many interesting and disturbing points to quote them all, so make sure to visit the site and read it completely. However, the article is wrong in one point (either that, or the companies give out false informations what would be in their favor): nobody has to sign with any company to have a work copyrighted. "Under the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have to be asserted or declared, as they are automatically in force at creation: an author need not 'register' or 'apply for' a copyright in countries adhering to the Berne Convention." (Source: Wikipedia). Licensing companies only exist to manage royalties for an artist; they don't control copyrights at all. If an artist would decide to take care of royalties by himself, his works would still be copyrighted. Of course companies don't like to hear that, since it makes it easier if everybody thinks that they have control over copyrights.