Posted by AnthonyR on 11/06/05 17:04

"Gary P" <nospam@thankyou.com> wrote in message news:436d66c3$1@127.0.0.1...
> "Larry J." <usenet2@DE.LETE.THISljvideo.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns97057D0796C3Dthefrogprince@68.6.19.6...
>> Waiving the right to remain silent, "Gary P" <nospam@thankyou.com>
>> said:
>>
>>> Well I hope you guys voluntarily pay royalties every time you
>>> sing "Happy Birthday"
>>
>> AFAIK, I can go into the street and sing "Happy Birthday" all day
>> long - as long as my neighbors don't shoot me - wihout infringing on
>> copyright.
>>
>
> According to United States copyright law in United States Code, Title 17
> �106, authors of works such as musical compositions have the exclusive
> right "to perform the copyrighted work publicly." In United States Code,
> Title 17 �101, the law defines publicly performing a work as "to perform
> or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a
> substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and
> its social acquaintances is gathered."
> This means that if you sing Happy Birthday to your family at home, you're
> probably not committing copyright infringment. However, if you do it in an
> restaurant - and if the restaurant hasn't already worked out a deal with
> ASCAP - you may be engaging in copyright infringement.
>
>

Thanks Gary,

As a friend just pointed out to me, what about all the millions of weddings
taking place every day in the USA?
They hire bands who sing songs in a commercial place (rented hall) most
songs are copyrighted.
They don't pay royalties and either does the video guy who records the event
and later charges for his services.

And what about the millions of D.J.'s charging commercially every day for
their services?
They don't pay royalties to all those artists. A lot of those artists won't
even release their permission
to some music for sale online yet, but D.J.'s just play any song the crowd
asks for.

I see this all the time. And now a lot of these travelling DJ's have all
their music in laptops and mix digitally
at a party, they charge between $100 and up for a party, that wouldn't even
cover the royalties.
And these guys support themselves as a living doing this, can't get any more
commercial than this.

I suspect, once a Movie hits Hollywood status (millions of dollars from box
office) then it gets attractive to
artists to sue for money, and small production just isn't worth it to them
and their lawyers, no?

AnthonyR.

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