The Performing Right Society (PRS) in the UK is literally looking and listening, anywhere and everywhere it can to find fresh new sources of license fees for “public performance” of music. It’s no secret that typical business premises like grocery stores, restaurants, clothing outlets and everything else must pay a yearly fee if they have the radio playing for their staff and customers.
Fresh from hunting down new businesses in towns and cities, the PRS is expanding to anywhere it can that technically is required to get a license. Rosemary Greenway is a perfect example. For over 20 years, she has played classical music for the animals at her stables because she believes it helps to keep them calm.
One day she received a telephone call from the Performing Right Society informing her that she must pay a £99 annual fee, as playing Classic FM at the stables where there are more than two on staff apparently constitutes a “performance”, regardless of the fact that the staff don’t really care for, or listen to the music at all.
Rosemary claims from observation that the music soothes the animals, making for better working conditions for all. The stables are also located next to the RAF Lyneham air base, so the music helps to drown out the excess noise. “You would have thought that playing music to your own horses was allowable but apparently not,” she said. “Especially on windy days I try to play it - it gives them a nice quiet atmosphere, you can only exercise one horse at a time so it helps the others to stay calm.”
Result for: premises
Citing “minor input” from the MPAA and RIAA, the Los Angeles County government has now added piracy to its definition of “public nuisance”, meaning all properties used in the dissemination of counterfeit goods can now be seized.
Physically pirated goods, such as bootleg DVDs or CDs, are now considered to be the same as counterfeit watches or handbags.
This new so called “Counterfeit Goods Nuisance Abatement ordinance” says that the counterfeit goods “substantially interfere with … lawful commerce in the county, property values, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare of the county’s citizens, its businesses, and its visitors.”
Any property owner that knowingly allows piracy on their premises can be held responsible to pay $1000 USD for every, yes every, pirated work produced. The district attorney can also “temporarily restrain, preliminarily enjoin, and/or permanently enjoin the person or persons intentionally conducting, or knowingly maintaining or permitting the public nuisance from further conducting, maintaining, or permitting such public nuisance.”
The ordinance is similar to that of the recent one passed in New York City but this ordinance does not seem to bother those who upload or download pirated movies and music from the Internet.
