Copyright Cops Target Kids’ Schools and Community Centers

[phoood]

Copyright Cops Target Kids’ Schools and Community Centers
Written by enigmax on October 15, 2008

The Performing Rights Society, the UK outfit collecting royalties for the music industry, seems it will stop at nothing as it demands money from small businesses, charities, playschools, and now, kids’ community centers, all so that they can listen to music without fear of prosecution.

The UK’s Performing Rights Society (PRS) is a non-profit organization, setup to ensure that the music industry continues to make plenty more profits on an on-going regular basis. For years now, they have collected license fees from companies that use music as part of their businesses, such as pubs, clubs and restaurants. Some might argue that these type of companies benefit commercially from playing music to the public, so a license fee, although not particular popular, can be absorbed as a legitimate business expense.

However, recently the PRS has been getting more and more aggressive in its quest to funnel cash to its paymasters. It now sees every UK organization - commercial or otherwise - as a legitimate target to intimidate with threats of legal action, should they dare to play a radio, TV or DVD within earshot of the public without a license. Small businesses playing the radio for personal entertainment to pass the working day, charities, tea rooms, corner shops and even community centers are being targeted by this outfit. Bizarrely, they are currently going after the British police, who have been refusing to pay. It’s clear, they care about just one thing - money.

To get this money the PRS go after people like the 61 year-old mechanic Paul Wilson, who has worked alone at his garage for 23 years since he was 15. He can’t afford the PRS license, so now he has to work in silence. “When I was first contacted by the PRS I thought somebody was having a laugh with me,” he said. But really, this is no laughing matter. After the demands for money, Mr Wilson told the PRS to take his radio to prove he wasn’t listening to it, but the PRS warned that the police could come round to do spot checks. Meanwhile, the garage next door to Mr Wilson also received a PRS letter, so they are maintaining radio silence too. Just regular people trying to earn a living, being chased down for money to listen to a radio at work. It’s astonishing.

When the small guy gets hit by these type of issues it really annoys people in the copyright debating community. However, if you really want to widen the debate and spread some really bad PR, it’s going to take tactics which show how low you are prepared to go. For instance, you could go after a charity trying to raise funds via a tea-room, discover their staff radio can be overheard, and demand money from them.

But it is possible to further outrage people. And this is what these type of collection outfits are doing, by widening their campaigns to start going after the softest most impressionable target in the country - kids. Last week we reported how the MPLC, a Hollywood royalty collection outfit, (illegally) demanded money from kindergartens in Ireland, so that the kids could watch DVDs there.

YokerResourceKidsBut going after children isn’t exclusively an MPLC tactic, the PRS are doing it too. Part of the claim against the tea-rooms mentioned above was that the kids there needed to be licensed to sing carols in front of the public and now, to add insult to injury, the PRS ‘non-profit’ copyright cop is going after a kid’s non-profit community center in Glasgow, Scotland. The Yoker Resource Centre is faced with a £3,000 bill, it if wants to carry on using its TV, radio or CD player, that is.

Elizabeth Busby, the after-school supervisor at the center told ClydeBank Post: “We can’t afford to pay this money. Although we have a TV license for the center, under these rules we cannot let all the kids watch it.”

Wondering (like the rest of us in the sane world) why people have to pay twice or more for using the same product, Ms Busby added: “If the children are watching a DVD then I have gone out and paid for it, so whether it is one person or twenty-five I still paid for it. It’s not as if I’m buying pirate copies or downloading them illegally. Soon it will be the Halloween party and what do we do for music?”

Asked to comment, the PRS declined. I’d like to think that the silence is down to shame, but I doubt it. I’ll leave you with some comments from Steve Pendlebury, writing in The Bolton News:

“Radio stations pay large amounts of money to licensing organizations PRS and PPL for the music they play, and music has been on the radio for many years. During the war, there were programmes like Workers Playtime and Music While You Work. Now, many radio stations have features about workplaces. If the PRS force people to switch their radios off then how are these stations going to survive?

Music has to be heard before people go out and buy it.”

What are your opinions on this?

 

[Trolly]

Wow, what a bunch of gays aha.

 

[Twiffles]

Oh, it's in the UK. Aha.

 

[kobykaan]

THE WORLD OF SUITS have GONE MONEY MAD!!!!!

I agree with radio stations having to paying fees to play music that's their job

and other establishments having to pay for rights to re broadcast stuff ..

but community centers with elderly people etc and youth clubs for kids .. GET A LIFE PRS GET A DAMN LIFE!

you will be OLD one day too or have kids that go to a school disco/prom are they going to go after them too?


what about the kids in the street with their damn mobile phones and mp3 ring tones ?? are you going to target them next ???

what about the kid on the bus with an IPOD that we can OBVIOUSLY HEAR their music its that damn loud are you going after them too??

WHAT if my neighbour has their stereo up loud and I hear it are they liable?

what say I walk down the street and whistle the latest number 1 do I have to pay too??


GET A DAMN LIFE and GET A REAL JOB!

NON PROFIT ORGANISATION ... YEAH RIGHT!!! then stop the damn taking people to court and huge damn fines for crap reasons!


[/RANT mode OFF]

 

[FAST6191]

Joy.
We now have these guys as well as FAST/FACT and the TV license tax* people.

Wonder how I can spin the "open source" thing to music and video.

* http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/09/internet_tv_licence/ as an especially fun example (I could not care less about football (regular, US, Gaelic, Australian or otherwise) but I guess it falls under then "First they came....." line of thought).

Remember these people are not the filth and so have to get a civil search warrant to do anything really fun (line of sight in the case of the mechanics workshop is a bit different), there is next to no hope of them being able to get a Anton Piller order (in current UK law although not necessarily systems derived from it it is a civil search warrant done without you being informed). Whether you mess with them is up to you, as demonstrated above they are money grubbing bastards and will most likely suffer a sense of humour failure if you do attempt to throw a wrench into their plans like that.
Re the nursery/kids club. I am interested as to why they did not go the "educational" exemption route.

 

[Rayder]

I see it as utterly absurd. Pay a fee to listen to a freakin' radio just because someone else might hear it?!? Oh freakin' PUH-LEEZE!

See, this is what too much college education is doing to the world. Money-grubbing greedy bastards in their smug little suits screwing with the regular folk!


Luckily, I don't live in EU. Otherwise, I'd probably be sitting in a jail cell for telling them to kiss ALL of my ass and to GTFO(ff) of my property with their ridiculous crap.