Quote:

I disagree with the statement about no difference between making money and free performances.



Really? And this is based on what? If all you're talking about is playing for your friends at home, sure no problem with that but public performances, no way. Understand all I'm doing here is quoting the law as anybody can read it, I totally agree all of us, including me, do this kind of stuff all the time, but it doesn't make it "legal".
An open mic situation implies that's in a commercial establishment. That means they are paying royalties to ASCAP or BM I, so you as a performer don't even realize it. I do lots of gigs every year and except for some backyard parties, everybody is paying ASCAP or BMI. It's just a small flat fee based on the size of the place because it's impossible to keep track of the actual song names but in big places like Vegas casinos and the like, they do have to keep track of the individual songs and pay royalties on them.
This has been discussed to death on these forums with tons of links to various sites from Wikipedia to different universities. Just do a forum search or use Google, you can read all about it. Start with Wikipedia and the Harry Fox Agency.
Trust me, money has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Boiled down the deal is you have no right to do anything at all with a copyright protected work except play it for yourself at home, that's it. No public performances unless somebody is paying royalties, no copying and giving the copies to anybody, no rearranging a song and putting that up on a forum, none of that without permission.

Bob

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