Quote:

I have a problem with this notion that one cannot sing a song in the privacy of their own home.

Um, that just isn't so.

Not yet, anyway...<...>



Hey Mac! I hope you are correct.

Back when I started my Band-in-a-Box aftermarket style business back in the early 1990s, I con$ulted an entertainment lawyer who $aid exactly what I posted. I'll paraphrase; If you sing "Happy Birthday" in the privacy of your own home, you are technically violating the copyright laws - but there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that you will get prosecuted.

Of course, each lawyer interprets the law in their own way, and laws are made by lawyers who get elected to office and it seems they write them in ambiguous language to insure that they will have job security when they are not re-elected.

On the other hand, he might have just been over-protective of me since I paid for his advice and depended on his information. My website has since been audited twice by BMI and I got tacit approval for what I'm doing, (by following his advice to the letter).

And the copyright laws have been revised since then, but from what I hear they have been strengthened, not weakened.

He added, videotaping a TV show and sharing it with your mother is a violation. Same for a CD or recording the music from the radio.

He said if I were to bring an acoustic guitar to a public park, and play/sing a copyrighted song, I could be in trouble unless the park had a license from ASCAP. Either I would be responsible for paying the royalties on each song that I played, or I could be sued for damages.

Before I went on a low glycemic diet and lost 50 pounds, I used to eat in an Italian restaurant once or twice per week. The restaurant played the radio on an easy listening station in the dining room. Then one day the ASCAP man came in and threatened to close the restaurant down if the owner did not physically remove the radio and speakers or pay the reoccurring license fee. The owner refused, replaced the radio with a cassette machine and started only playing classical music and Italian folk songs that were in the public domain. I have read that since that day, somebody else won a lawsuit and it was determined that you can play a radio in a restaurant now.

The fact remains that if you trade a copyrighted song in any way, shape or form, you are violating the copyright laws, whether or not you are making any money or not. Whether either you or I agree that the law is right or not, doesn't have anything to do with it.

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