Yet another question for the legal bealges
Floridays
interesting things about how the music companies go to bars/resturants and
extract a fee if they play music - the formula of which how they assess the
fees was unknown to all.
Anyway - I was lucky enough to be down island this last week in St. Thomas
and St. John for 6 days.
While there, I obviously experienced some night life. All of the places
played copy righted music. Duffy's Love Shack was happening (even on a
Tuesday) and the Renaissance Grand Beach Resort, where we stayed, even had a
Buffett night. All the employees were wearing Caribbean Soul T-shirts and
nothing but JB Music was played.
Now the question - -
Do the music companies also police and extract music rights fees from places
like these even they are only in US Territories? What about Puerto Rico
which is a US Commonwealth instead of a territory - does this make any
difference? What about the British Virgin Islands - say Tortola - are the
bars there also policed by the music companies?
- Floridays (who stills supports Bob PH since '75 and believes the long arm
of the law was stretching a little too long when the Kremarita lawyers
handled the situation the way they did)
Ken Keefover
organizations (PFR). The three PFR's are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. They are
responsible for collecting royalties from radio airplay and sales for
writers. In the middle 90's ASCAP came under fire for shutting down small
places that refused to pay the yearly ASCAP fee of $400 or $500 just for the
right to play copyrighted music in their establishment. It wasn't only ASCAP
but also BMI and SESAC. ASCAP and BMI claim to be not-for-profit while SESAC
claims they do it for the money.
I am a songwriter with BMI and can appreciate the work involved in making
sure writers/artists are paid their due. Visit http://www.bmi.com and do a
search of the writers database for bubba and you will get a list of all the
songs he has registered with BMI. Same goes me if you do a search for me,
Ken Keefover. Of course, I'm waiting to get one of those pretty stars next
to one of my songs :-)
About the place in the islands you're talking about it may be the simple
fact that BMI, ASCAP or SESAC hasn't made it down there to check them out
yet. There really isn't a checklist bar owners automatically fill out
everytime they open a new place. When the PFR's show up one day you can bet
there will be some tempers flying.
Ken
http://www.mp3.com/KenKeefover
LuLu's this Friday night.
The Preacher and the Sailor - #1 Christian Country Chart
Floridays <sail...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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Floridays
it up!