June 20, 2009
ASCAP Wants To Be Paid When Your Phone Rings
According to the EFF, ASCAP appears to believe that every time your musical ringtone rings in public, you're violating copyright law by "publicly performing" it without a license.
At least that's the import of a brief it filed in ASCAP's court battle with mobile phone giant AT&T.
This will doubtless come as a shock to the millions of Americans who have legitimately purchased musical ringtones, contributing millions to the music industry's bottom line. Are we each liable for statutory damages (say, $80,000) if we forget to silence our phones in a restaurant?
ASCAP's outlandish claim is part of its battle with major mobile carriers (including Verizon and AT&T) over whether ASCAP is owed any money for "public performances" of the musical ringtones sold by the carriers. The carriers point out that the owners of the musical compositions (i.e., songwriters and music publishers) are already paid for each ringtone download, but ASCAP claims that it's owed another royalty for the "public performances" (i.e., ringing in a restaurant) of those same ringtones.
Read full article.
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