Police Chief Faces High Court Anti-Piracy Action
Written by enigmax on June 12, 2008After the police arrest citizens for minor copyright infringements that allegedly took place on OiNK, they now face their own anti-piracy woes. Chief Constable Steve Finnigan is accused by the music industry of copyright infringement and now faces High Court action. Police pirates – who would have imagined it?
When it comes to copyright, we live in a strange world of double-standards. One minute a minor copyright infringer will be ignored or tolerated, the next thing we know – such as in the recent OiNK arrests – those same civil law infringements are inflated to become some sort of next-level serious cyber-crime.
A few days later, and those same offenses are now just worthy of a simple warning – confusing times.
Today, the strange world of copyright has the music industry threatening those it has encouraged to work for them in the OiNK case – the police.
UK music licensing outfit the “Performing Right Society” (PRS) – the guys that come asking for money when you play any music within earshot of the public – is rolling out the big guns ready for a High Court showdown with a little known group of music pirates, known in the UK as ‘the police’. Not the band of the same name, but that government organization people rely on for keeping law and order.
According to a report, the police in the county of Lancashire have apparently committed a terrible crime and let the whole country down. Rather like the copyright infringing tea-rooms and their carol-singing occupants we wrote about last year, it appears that the police have been recklessly listening to music in stations all over the county – without a license. The PRS aren’t happy.
Chief Constable Steve Finnigan is the guy being held accountable for this awful breach of copyright across 34 police stations in his county. One shudders to think of the damage that these boys-in-blue have caused the industry, as they coincidentally listen to the radio at the same time as serving the citizens of Britain. But it doesn’t stop there – according to a High Court writ, unlicensed music has also been played in police gyms, conferences, presentations and office parties.
As if things aren’t bad enough, there are worrying claims that telephone callers to police stations were put on hold and forced to listen to unlicensed music while they waited to report crimes. The trauma of ‘holding music’ is bad enough, but throw ‘unlicensed’ holding music into the mix and the gravity of this infringement is obvious.
The PRS is looking to get an injunction against the force and if it’s successful it will silence music in police stations right across the county, unless they dig deep for the appropriate license. The PRS is also sensitively and sensibly claiming damages from the already under-funded police.
It seems that further police forces in the UK have informed the PRS that music is often played in the background in their offices, with eleven of them either failing or refusing to obtain licenses enabling them to listen to it legally.
Generally, the PRS make a request for information from people who they believe should be paying them money, usually by letter. The recipient is then expected to tell them all about their music-playing antics and after this is complete, the PRS calculate and then send out a bill. Interestingly, it’s claimed that the head of legal services at Lancashire police told the PRS that she had instructed her colleagues to ignore the requests for information. She then emailed the PRS and said she had instructions to accept the service of proceedings against the force.
The PRS legal eagles believe that Steve Finnigan is admitting the claims, which could mean that the UK will shortly have its first Pirate Chief Constable. Let’s hope his associates at Cleveland Police don’t get involved – the last thing the police boss needs is to be arrested on conspiracy to defraud the music industry.
Previously: BitTorrent Trio Hit a Billion Pageviews a Month
Next: Canada Proposes Draconian Anti-Piracy Law
74 Responses
this is so pathetic.
you are not even allowed to listen to your music as you want.
soon you will be fined for letting anyone but the purchaser of the cd listen to the music
LOL!
HILARIOUS!
“As if things aren’t bad enough, there are worrying claims that telephone callers to police stations were put on hold and forced to listen to unlicensed music while they waited to report crimes. The trauma of ‘holding music’ is bad enough, but throw ‘unlicensed’ holding music into the mix and the gravity of this infringement is obvious.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The British police should be purged!
All listening to unlicenced music should be shot and quartered!!
How dare they?!
The world is going mad.. Or should I say more so than it already is.
Sigh..
String ‘em up!
this is truly getting worse by the day. this is the biggest joke after the defraud news. what are they going to do next? sue me for listening the radio over the internet? just as i thought those people couldnt go any lower
Is anyone here at all surprised? I am most certanly not.
A question that might arise could be, as many allready must have thought about one time or another I imagine, how many stores, elevators, politicians offices and government buildings does not allready play unlicenced music? What about hospitals and kindergarden?
How many policemens and politicians sons and daughters download and play music, movies and what not?
I get so terribly tired sometimes.
skin those little piggies alive!
Man whats up with the children these day?
ACAB… =]
i was told recently and this may or may not be true but apparently, if you have more than 4 people round to watch a dvd then it is classed as a public performance and you are guilty of copyright infringement.
Where i can get that shit they are smoking?
I’m having a BBQ this weekend and will have music playing out in the garden …better watch out for the legal eagles i might end up in court for playing my own music i have paid for …just cos the neigbours can hear it also …what a fucking joke…Britain is getting worse..
Guys, guys! Wait for a minute and just dont start flaming the morons… this actually be a good thing for us.
However much we may dislike the cops i think I speak for all of us when I saw we dislike the “copyright cops” more… infact we would like to see more “copyright corpse”, you gotto remember evern though they sometimes dont act like it… the UK police are humans too.. given their cash crunch and these absurd charges its only a matter of time before they rebel themselves to screw over this gangster industry and we gain an ally!
I hope they really go after this cop, make an example of him… something that is sure to come back and bite them on the ass a little later.
cheers!
http://www.ezee.se/
@ the.dwarfer
A public performance is as stated in section 101 of the copyright law that a performance is public if it is in a public place or if it is in any place if “a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its acquaintances” is gathered there.
Then again, the sly lawyers might as well bend this to there favor similar to the “making available” idea they have somehow been able to keep up…
section 101 ? section lol !
@15
Never has the term “lol” been more appropriate :D
anouther win for the record companies! lets hope they make an example out of this corrupted piracy ring leader who managed to worm his way into the police force in order to bring things down from the inside!
@14 some families like mine have an astonishing amount of relatives, and i dont mean distant relatives i mean my grandparents had 13 kids and most of them have had kids who have had kids ya we couldnt all fit in a movie theatre if we wanted to but watching on the back of my house with a projector while jamming in my pool accomadates us quite nicely. lol
If this is the way its going to be then we’ll soon see the cops on our side.
^^ true, and hopefully they will now see how stupid they copyright lobby is….
I laughed so hard my stomach hurts.
Now sincerely, i pitty all the normal people who live in the UK.
That country is going to HELL… Haven’t you guyz seen V for Vendetta?, that’s exactly what’s going to happen if you ppl don’t do something about it…
LOL! My head hurts
HILARIOUS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
*sigh*
This actually is to our favor, I mean if I was a cop, if they ever needed my help for say a robbing or someone taking a dump in their chimney, I’d tell them the closest guy is tied up for a moment and will be there in 15-25 minutes.
But you better watch out, soon if you’re playing music you created without a label in public, you’ll get fined for breaking your own copyright.
the police will not become an ‘ally’…that is so far-fetched…. These are the same police that harass you at the slightest cause or provocation and who punish normal citizenry as much and as frequently as possible. They believe all the rhetoric and their own causes
PRS is the kinda company you could watch members of get blown away by a shotgun and just grin a little..
this is too funny. does the music industry really believe that in order to play their music you have to have some sort of permit or liscence……. my god how stupid do they think we are?
@ 24 lol
breaking your own copyright….
just wait till they copyright food………….
It isn’t funny actually .. it just goes to show the pathetic state of society today. There is a larger picture to this case, and all the others as well. When 95% people of a supposedly modern and civil society are being oppressed like this, and the most they can do in their defense is to chortle back at each other .. well that is what is sad. Not who gets served a notice here and there for listening to some fucking songs.
THAT is what shouldn’t be happening in the first place.
Dehumanization and complete breakdown of societal functioning and integrity .. this is what this implies.
We are all slaves, in the worst kind of way.
A very smart move from the music parasites: Bothering the police!
Hahahahahahahahaha! Good one Dinosaurs!
Now do the judges too because, you know, they are listening to music in their offices too without licence.
The music parasites RIAA/MPAA/BPI. . . are exactly like the islamo-terrorists: They don’t want you to listen to music.
(Note:Islamo-fanatics claim that music is against Islam and that god does not want you to listen to music.)
i wonder….if a band is playing at a bar and i walk down the street and hear the music will i be spending the next 5 years in jail?
@31
Yes, you’re breaking the bands copyright infringement, they’re losing sales because you heard their song and didn’t pay them a dollar or however much for the listening rights.
Worse is for the band though, because they didn’t get a license for people on that specific block to listen, only for the private show indoors.
I really enjoyed this article. Very entertaining sarcasm throughout.
The music industry is getting ridiculous as all hell.
Irony has never tasted so delicious.
Next it will be the man in his car driving along the motor way who has to get a licenes since other members of the public might hear it
careful not to turn your car radio up too loud. “public performance! public performance! i’m sueing yoooouu!!!!!!”
they will eventually end up telling these people to f*ck off and that there are more important things to attend to, such as REAL CRIMINALS. nothing but ridiculous greed.
Heh, this will make the police REALLY want to help the music industry out in busting pirates!
All I can say is maybe the goverment will look to slap with music liscence guys in the face and stop arresting pirates.
IT SHOWS THE SILLYNESS OFF COPYRIGHT LAW TODAY.
I’d like to watch this case, since cops get away with everything. I’d like to know how they do it this time, or if there’ll just be double standards applied. Going after a police chief? Good luck with that. Maybe they will settle for bankrupting him? Ha, as if it would come to that. I’m sure they get free legal assistance. Settle out of court? Not likely.
Hey kids, when you drive down the road with your music blaring, you are infringing copyright too ya know. Be very afraid. Better stick to boomboxes -just annoy everyone and give yourself a concussion. Better make sure your musical horn has a licensed tune!
If they can get away with suing the police, we’d better be afraid. I hope the police now go after and investigate the RIAA. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Fancy a police chief conspiring to defraud the music industry! Shocking. Or maybe it’s more like music industry paranoia and delusions of grandeur?
In which case, what does it say about their mental state?
Next they will be suing people for listening to the radio, especially if they allow others to hear it. If you have friends over or have family members in the room, better not put on any music. Even for personal use, you will need a renewed license every time you want to play a song.
put em in jail and throw the key away!
hahahaha….
This was fun reading
this is just epic lol
meh, i was hoping for something more…. anti-cop
but posts showing how fucked up the PRS is aren’t bad…
[quote=24]But you better watch out, soon if you’re playing music you created without a label in public, you’ll get fined for breaking your own copyright.[/quote]
Such nonsensical rubbish is not needed to ’support’ anti-copyright campaigners. All you’re doing is revealing your own ineptitude.
Its probably someone’s first day…
I,m sure this will be dealt with in the normal way by a licence being obtained and both sides backing off slowly, there is no other way to deal with this situation.
If things do take a turn for the worse a minister of the crown can sign a “public interest immunity certificate” and block any further legal action against the crowns servants.
“The general grounds under which public interest immunity may be claimed include the interests of national security and good diplomatic relations; protecting the identity of informants or sources of criminal intelligence; and where confidentiality is necessary in the interests of justice.”
This is the new name for what used to be called “crown privilege”.
I,m 100% sure a licence will be obtained and this case quietly dropped
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haha what a joke… a charity and then the police.
The police, out trying to fight and solve crimes not related to 1’s and 0’s on a computer listen to music jsut to make their day SLIGHTLY more tolerable…and these morons try to sue them for it.
I’m pretty sure lancashire polices head of legal services > PRS’s lawyers though. haha
*RELEVANT COMMENT*
The licenses for this kind of thing went up by around 100% a couple of years ago. I know this because where I used to work the company had to stop playing music in the toilets due to the increased costs. This was really bad because there was then no escape from the sound of your neighbour shitting. Maybe the increased cost and indiscriminate nature of the charge is why the Old Bill didn’t get the license. The license applies the same for music in toilets of a public building as it does for a nightclub, as far as I am aware. Ridiculous!
this is incredible, but i’m happy:) finally police will understand how stupid these MPAA people are and stop acting on their orders in the future! Which is exactly what we pirates want:)
Also, hats-off to enigmax for presenting the article in a satirical manner. Sample this “According to a report, the police in the county of Lancashire have apparently committed a terrible crime and let the whole country down.” LOLLLLLLLLLLL U made me laugh so much. thk u buddy
they dare to listen music in gYm, outrageus…hahaha, another few years and lots of stupid mistakes like this and the world will shove the copyright up their behinds!!! unfortuantly the good and decent copyright will have to suffer as the world will reject more and more this term and nonsence.
These wankers kept ringing my workplace asking to speak to whoever is in charge as well as sending letters. They are relentless and in the end my boss removed the radio because it was going to cost him about £200-£300 a year. Fuck the PRS and the BPI
way to alienate your [bought] allies corporates!
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
this is a joke.
using copyright law like this will hurt them
“The world is going mad.. Or should I say more so than it already is.”
The world isn’t going mad, the people who are going mad are these people who say that they are ’speaking on behalf of the musicians’ who are usually doing no such thing at all.
Frankly, I am GLAD to see that someone is finally standing up to these leeches in court, and I really hope that the judge realizes what an absolutely INSANE argument this is, and dismisses the case summarily, with a big fine against the people who filed the writ.
LMFAO !
Biting the hands that enforce… Excellent move that, alienating those who do the dirty work.
Ho-LY-SHIT. what a joke. Anyone ever read Orwell’s 1984?
The World is going insane! That all I can say
Review community
This is a joke. Right?
Excuse me but WTF!!!
Sounds like a case of double dipping by the corrupt and greedy PRS.
Listening to a radio in which other people can hear is not an infringement of copyright.
The radio station already pays a fee to broadcast it to their listeners.
You, the consumer, pay the legal fees to listen to it when you purchase the music.
I would also argue that there are many times I have heard someone else’s radio but wasn’t listening because it wasn’t my style of music.
This is another feeble attempt by a corporation to squeeze more mony out of us and have complete control over what we see, listen or do in our everyday lives.
And don’t go busting on how the police are doing the double standard because if you read other articles they did it to a bunch of car mechanics! You could be next.
Listen to music at work? You won’t be soon enough if this gestapo group has it’s way.
The police being sued for listening to music while working? WTF?
In what world are we living here?
Who actually doesn’t hear music while working… I doubt that it’s always silent in the PRS’ HQ either…
Quite shocking, in a positive but more in a negative way… this may slowly lead to global music listening restrictions… if piracy doesn’t OWN the world first… (which is probably the only help in this case, even for the police…)
well written article
highly entertaining :D
piss off the cops, then who will make your arrests for you. …whatever
If you have seen one of the PRS brouchers it says on the back
“Imagine a world without music.”. Pretty soon you won’t have to imagine it!! What a F@*#ing joke!!!
P.S.
I will contribute the License Fee(Music Tax) they have demanded to any charity or organisation that will fight this ludicrous twisting of the law.
What would be fantastic is if we could get the whole world to stop listening to music for one month. Talk about the Music Industry having a major freakout LOLOL
________________________________
I got pierced at
http://www.bodypiercingbybrandi.com
if someone could possiblly point out one good reason why the police should be exempt then I may change my mind.
do they get exemption from paying their gas bill or water rates? the simple fact is in this day and age is that if you use it you have to pay for it.
While PRS may seem to be acting in a draconian way they are infact looking after the interests of songwriters and musicians that rely on royalty payments. This cannot be underestimated. theyre a non-profit organisation.
most of you seriously have no clue.
further ‘the head of legal services’ had instructed the force to ‘ignore’ prs. this surely doesnt seems like a responsible course of action? pure arrogance, which has ended up causing avoidable legal action. a further waste of tim and money
You know I really, REALLY dislike the police employing double standards by enforcing laws they themselves break.
But in this one and only circumstance I am going to be a total hypocrite, GO POLICE! This law is really stupid and it’s public money well spent to fight them. We hope you win.
Read what it says. No one said you can’t listen to your own music or music you’ve purchased, the rules are that you can’t broadcast the music without paying the artists and prs royalties which is fair enough.
I think it’s more a dig at the police than the prs, they are completely within their rights to demand performance related royalties. How do you think musicians and artists make their money?
“These wankers kept ringing my workplace asking to speak to whoever is in charge as well as sending letters. They are relentless and in the end my boss removed the radio because it was going to cost him about £200-£300 a year. Fuck the PRS and the BPI”
We had a problem with our old music “Royalty-free” I might add. They went after the people who supplied us and they paid up without even a wimper.
Also, doesn’t playing a radio in publec not count as the Radio station has already paid royalties.
I think the PRS is taking advantage of people’s desire to pay up and have a hassle-free life.
Wasn’t Muzak invented to get around this?
This poxy music industry owes me money. Everytime I enter a store thats paid their poxy fees and every time I watch an advert thats paid their poxy fees and these poxy things are playing poxy music that highly irritates me and is polluting my mind. Its sending me mad. Where do I get my compensation from for the damage this poxy music is doing too my mind. This is an infringement of my basic human rights. Stop music being played in public places now or pay up or shut the f up and leave people to do what they like with this poxy music. Aggggghh The Birdy Song arrraaagghhh G’ Elton John Arrraaagghhhh pedo Michael Jacko Arrrraghggh The leader of a GAng Glitter now I could just kill a music man and all their poxy money grabbing henchmen. Including Gutless Brown. Cos the musics made me MAAAADDDD!
Joking aside. We should all just take The BPI to court. As they took the money to allow the poxy music, thats irritating our minds, to be played in public places. So its definately their fault.
They sold the right to pollute our minds. Without first gaining our agreement.
If 6 million of us take them to court individually. 6 million cases. Im pretty sure it would be game over for BPI.
The government and the courts would feel it where it hurts too.
In masses of unwanted costly paperwork.
Or you could all just sit there complaining and let these people walk all over you. Just like the sheep you are.
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