iPod Muzak Isn't Same Old Song
from the when-will-the-lawyers-show-up? dept
Last week we had a story wondering why Apple wasn't selling space on their iPods, which was updated with a story of a DJ in Philadelphia who rents out iPods filled with music to local restaurants to play. Wired News has picked up on this story and found others who rent out iPods to retails establishments to give them some variety when it comes to the muzak they play. Of course, the legal questions still loom. The retailers all pay their ASCAP/BMI fees, but the person putting the music on the iPod itself may be infringing copyright rules, according to current laws. One of the operations doing this is (smartly) only using tracks they licensed from independent artists, but another is assuming he's covered by ASCAP/BMI. On top of that, lawyers may claim that the establishments that use those iPods may then be contributing to copyright infringement. Of course, this is silly, and the RIAA lawyers will be sure to swoop down and charge high fees to anyone trying to run this sort of business (effectively double and triple charging everyone for some music). In the end, this means that most places will probably have to go back to playing bland, uncreative muzak instead of well thought out music prepared by a DJ. Aren't intellectual property lawyers great?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Aren't intellectual property lawyers great?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Separate the tunes and the sequence
[ link to this | view in chronology ]