Charity Forced to Pay Copyright Fee So Kids Can Sing Carols
Written by enigmax on December 09, 2007Christmas is known world-wide as a time for sharing, a time for giving. But for one charity, instead of Santa arriving with gifts, the copyright police turned up demanding money. Why? Because the charity allows children to sing carols on the premises and their kitchen radio is a little loud. You couldn’t make it up.
Be under no illusion, being unlicensed to play music to the public is a very serious situation in the UK. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 states that if you use copyright music in public, you have to get permission from every single copyright holder to play their music. Or pay a fee to the right outfit.
Car maintenance chain Kwik Fit is currently tied up in a bitter legal battle with the UK Performing Rights Society (PRS). It’s alleged that Kwik Fit’s mechanics allowed their radios to be played within earshot of the public - a truly heinous crime for which the PRS are demanding £200,000 in damages.
According to a report, the PRS are at it again. The staff at a charity also received a visit from a PRS officer who declared that because a staff radio in the kitchen could be overheard by the public in their tea-room, they would need a license. The charity, Dam House, which was originally set up to save a historic building and offer community and health facilities, had to have a fund-raising event to raise the money for the license.
However, having purchased a license, this wasn’t the end of the matter. The PRS then started asking more questions, and when they discovered that kids sing in a carol concert there at Christmas, they declared that the premises were under licensed. Yes, of course - the PRS wanted yet more money.
“We got really worked up when they told us how much we would have to pay this year” said charity trustee, Margaret Hatton. “They asked us what facilities we had and we think they are charging more because they found out we’ve got a function room.”
The next quote from Margaret really speaks for itself - has the world gone mad?
“They told us the only way to avoid paying to sing the carols is if the kids are told to stick to old songs which are out of copyright.”
Next thing you know someone will be saying ‘Happy Birthday‘ is copyrighted and you can’t sing that to the public in the tea-rooms. Well, unfortunately it is, and legally you can’t.
Elaine Hurst, another Dam House trustee explained: “We know the recording artists need to be paid for their work but this is ridiculous.”
Every TV owning family in the UK has to have a UK TV License by law, the proceeds of which go to fund BBC TV and BBC radio stations nationwide. To charge a charity money because the public can overhear a radio is crazy, especially when you consider the public already paid another license to be allowed to listen to the content coming out of its speakers.
Merry Christmas PRS
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203 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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FUCK! The motherfuckin copyright assholes strike again! God dammit! Fuck this!
this is def better than Halo 3!
The minds of some men need to be reprogrammed
Absolutely pathetic. Yet another attempt by HM Government to extort hard earned from the hard earners.
I’d emigrate, but for the fact that everywhere else is heading down similar (and in some cases, worse) paths.
This is making my blood boil…
[quote comment="235212"]I think everyone should go to the people of PRS’s houses on Christmas Day at midnight, and take a shit in their chimneys… Coal would work well too, but you know that’s expensive and they’ll find a way to make money off of it. Make sure you eat a lot of prunes that night guys![/quote]
What?? And risk hitting Santa?
Oh, and another thing. The PRS has really been on the rampage with this over the past few months - they’ve telephoned my workplace on at least 4 occasions that I’m aware of (I answered the phone…), despite the fact that we don’t even have a radio on the premises…
I guess the PRS and the rest of the music industry doesn’t care what they look like. With this they might as well have taken a Public Relation bullet to the head. Attacking a charity, you can’t get much lower.
As a spokesperson for the Oxford dictionary it is now illegal for any word within our covers to be used in public without paying royalties to us. Happy holidays.
I am embarrassed of my country now.
Thank you, P.R.S.
MAFiAA at work. Nothing to see here, move along..
happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday what can i say this world has gone mad its really unthinkable what ever next Martians have landed…run for your lives….
And after all this complaining… I wonder how many people will purchase CDs for themselves or others this holiday season.
The only way to stop these people is to stop paying for their offerings TOTALLY, which will never happen.
Fuck the PRS
News Flash!!! P.R.S Sue’s the World for shouting “Happy New Year!!” at 12:00 the first of jan 2008… that is my first prediction the next is News Flash!!! P.R.S Sues the world again with the help of oxford dictionary for using the words contained in the dictionary… whats next PRS are you gonna copy right breathing too ?
I now own the copyright to the english alphabet. You all have to pay me.
I’ll settle for just a low, $100 per day otherwise I WILL charge you and you WILL get jail time.
Thank you for supporting Capitalism.
I call them what I call the RIAA. “Music Nazis”. You now see why.
how low can these assholes sink…
[quote comment="235278"]And after all this complaining… I wonder how many people will purchase CDs for themselves or others this holiday season.
The only way to stop these people is to stop paying for their offerings TOTALLY, which will never happen.[/quote]
i agree, don’t give away any dvds or cds, share them instead
the more i read about england, the more the ‘nanny state’ title fits. it really is starting to sound like 1933-1937 germany.
Fucking retarded motherfuckers! It’s thing’s like this that make me sick!
Fucking bastards!
Actually the words to “Happy Birthday” ARE already copyrighted in the United States. That’s why you don’t hear it sung in dining establishments anymore.
This has to be some extremely belated April Fools Joke, right? If nothing else, they’re a god damned charity!
Here’s a brief list of popular Christmas Songs that I’ve heard at school and charity recitals (these are under copyright, so make sure to report these bastards to the RIAA for not supporting the capitalist pig… record labe… starving artists: (source: http://www.apra.com.au/music-users/ChristmasSongsList.asp)
All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth
All I Want for Christmas is You
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Frosty the Snow Man
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Here Comes Santa Claus
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Jingle-Bell Rock
Little Drummer Boy
Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
Silver Bells
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
… and many more, for only $21.95!!!
ORDER NOW!!!, or I’ll fucking sue you, DAMNIT!
What a sad state of affairs. If I go over to GB, I’m going to have a ghetto blaster blaring in London I go, then tell PRS POS asshats to shove their license up their ass. (now that makes me wonder, if breakdancers are scarce because they were broadcasting copy written hip-hop sans license?)
Whatever, they’re pressing people because Christmas is not about community, or family, or that glowing feeling you get when Mom brings out the Turkey to the awaiting guests, it’s about fucking profits.
That’s it! no one gets a present this year, download your own! Shoplift Christmas CDs and then give them to the homeless to use as coasters for their liquor of choice.
I’m off to go beat a Santa Clause to death with a Coke Bottle now to cool off.
turn off your radio, cell phone and tv.
DO NOT attend concerts or purchase a cd unless you know for a fact it is an independent.
A sorry looking quarter report is the only thing these greedy F!!!s understand.
Happy Birthday is copyrighted in the U.S., but it’s probably not LEGALLY copyrighted there. In the life+50 universe, which is most of the world, and the life+70 universe, which is about a quarter of the world, Happy Birthday is public domain.
Why dont these assholes get a REAL job? Stop fucking with people doing good deeds.
you know why the music nazi’s care so much? its not the artists salaries its their own. they have to pay for their coke parties, 5 star business lunches, and private jets to impress new talent
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