Subscribe by EmailUK police being sued for playing radio too loud
June 15, 2008 by Mark O'Neill |By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
The Lancashire police in the UK is being sued by the Performing Rights Society (PRS), which I suppose is another version of the RIAA in the United States. The PRS has its pants in a twist because the cops have been playing music too loud in places such as police stations and to phone callers on hold without a proper license.
That is apparently a public performance for which fees must be collected. Yeah, I’m sure the criminals in handcuffs are standing up hooting and hollering and giving standing ovations everytime Britney Spears comes on the radio to do “Oops, I did it again”.
The PRS tried to collect licensing fees, the Lancashire police told them to take a hike and now it’s heading to court. This promises to be an interesting case!
So if you guys think the RIAA in the United States is out of control, don’t worry. The PRS is totally out of their cage too. They tried to sue some garage mechanics called Kwik-Fit too because their radio was too loud (they only wanted a paltry $390,000 in licensing fees).
They apparently “insist on a license regardless of the means by which the music is performed”.
So if I sing in the shower, will I get sued too?
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If we follow that logic and I decide to throw a summer dance party in my backyard, playing music that all my neighbords can overhear, I basically should be paying copyright fees… Duh.
They are in charge of redistributing the collected fees among the artists who obviously have their work pirated, so they do not miss revenue.
Unfortunately, Brein works so inefficiently that they can not track down most of the artists they say they owe money to, so they keep the money until they DO find them. Yah, riiiight….
They love the ‘chase’, the adrenalin rush, the capture of some 13 year old car thief almost as much as they love booking motorists for eating a Mars bar while driving.
Give them a burglary, or an physical assault to deal with and you’ll wait a very long time indeed.
So I say “Good on yer” to the performing rights society.
Why should thee police have one law for them, and another for US. If ‘we’ play our radio on a building site, we can get the site shut down by these ‘wallies’ for exactly THAT same reason.
Give them a taste of their own medicine.
Pete.