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January 26, 2005

The ASCAP Goon Squad (WuzzaDem)

elian.jpg
"Fork over the royalties, kid!"

Via Drudge:

Wolfy’s, a lower Broadway restaurant and bar, was sued by the performing rights organization ASCAP Monday for failing to pay royalties for music played in the nightclub over the past several years.

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Nashville after attempting for several years to collect payment from Wolfy’s, said Vincent Candilora, ASCAP’s Nashville-based senior vice president of licensing.


This is my favorite quote:
“We went in there literally 10, 15 times, and they keep just kind of thumbing their nose at us. This is what will happen eventually,” Candilora said.

Is it just me, or does this sound like the music industry's own goon squad?

"Hey, I'm jus' sayin'; sumthin' could happen if youse ain't careful."

More from the article:

The suits allege that the establishments have publicly performed the copyrighted musical works of ASCAP’s member songwriters, composers and music publishers without permission.

I guess that sounds reasonable. So who are they suing? This past weekend I heard the owner of a small dry cleaner calling in to one of those 'free legal advice' radio shows. He said that ASCAP representatives had visited his small, family-owned business three times in the past two weeks to inform him that he was going to have to start paying them, because he plays CDs in the background while his business is open, so, technically, he is 'using the artists' works as entertainment for his clients'.

Does he have a dance floor in the pick-up area?
Is he hosting 'Karaoke Tuesdays'?
Do people come in to hear the bitchin' tunes blasting from giant speakers?
No - it's a dry cleaner.

And here are some of the other businesses currently being sued by ASCAP:

The Back Porch
Saddlerack
Joe's Cafe
Hundred South Grille
Buffalo Billiards
American Sports Cafe
Buffalo Tap & Grille
Soulard Ale House
Scuttlebutts Restaurant and Bar
Joe's Cafe? Scuttlebutts Restaurant? Buffalo Billiards? What about Granny's Yarn Barn? Haven't they nailed Elmer's Feed and Grain yet?

The attorneys from that call-in show told the dry cleaner that they didn't think he could successfully fight ASCAP. They're probably right. According to this article (again via Drudge):

During 2004, ASCAP achieved a 100% success rate with its copyright infringement litigation, with all concluded cases resulting in either a cash settlement or a judgment in favor of ASCAP members.

For the music industry, this is a PR move on par with suing a five-year-old for illegally downloading Sesame Street's greatest hits.

Maybe Nickie Goomba could have a little talk wit' dese ASCAP guys. Hey, I'm jus' sayin'

Posted by John from WuzzaDem

Update: Ted, the owner of Buffalo Billiards, wrote me to say that he has no other choice but to play CDs in his establishment. According to Ted:

The radio reception in there sucks, and my ex-wife trashed the jukebox because she was sick of people playing "Werewolves of London" just so they could do their impression of Tom Cruise in "The Color of Money."

I feel your pain, Ted. I feel your pain.


posted by Ace at 08:21 PM
Comments



It could get worse.

There's a specific exemption in the Copyright Act for bars and restaurants that have TVs or radios in them. As I recall, there's no infringement if the establishment is smaller than a certain size, and has under a certain number of TV sets or radio receivers, and doesn't have a super-jumbo screen, and doesn't charge admission. (There's probably more to it, but that's the basic gist of the exemption.)

But the WTO has actually declared that this exemption violates the TRIPs international copyright agreement, and I think it may have even approved trade sanctions on some US products for being out of compliance.

Posted by: Alex on January 26, 2005 10:11 PM

Elmer's Feed And Grain?

Damn, that's funny.

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on January 26, 2005 10:18 PM

It sounds like the estate of Tennessee Ernie Ford ought to be having quite a windfall after these restaurants got the shakedown.

However, I do see some virtue in this. I know the IRS offers a percentage for informing on tax cheats. So if some dude idles outside my window pumping Queensryche through his fifteen-inch Fosgate subwoofers, I would like to report him to ASCAP for "entertaining" the area without paying royalties.

Posted by: See-Dubya on January 27, 2005 12:52 AM
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Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove

I posted his post on twitter and it's gotten 25K views so far. Thanks, Smell the Glove
Chris
@chriswithans

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"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"
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Something is wrong as I hold you near
Somebody else holds your heart, yeah
You turn to me with your icy tears
And then it's raining, feels like it's raining
"It's f**king f**ked."
-- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source"
Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.
Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat

🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over
"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION
Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)
No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.

Only a cult does this.
Now they've lost 84%.
Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.
Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...
The British Patriot
@TheBritLad

🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.


Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult.
Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.
(((Dan Hodges)))
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Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.


Nick Lowles
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Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party
STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98.
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Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
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REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.
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