Irish Collection Society Wants Hotels To Pay Performance Fees For Music Played In Guest Rooms

from the oh-come-on-now dept

We've seen all sorts of ridiculous claims by performance rights collection societies trying to demand performance rights for things that clearly were not intended as "performances." There was the woman stocking shelves in a store who was singing without paying. There was the owner of a horse stable who played music to her horses. There was the attempt to say that your mobile phone ringing with a ringtone was a public performance. Basically, they're willing to claim just about any music playing is a public performance that requires yet another fee.

Niall.e points us to a legal issue in Europe, where the Irish High Court has asked the European Court of Justice to weigh in on a claim by the Irish collection society Phonographic Performance Ireland Ltd (PPI), which is claiming that music played in hotel rooms for guests requires a performance fee. Yes, you read that right. PPI is claiming that since the hotel provides radios and televisions in the guest rooms, they need to pay a performance right fee on the usage of those devices.

PPI can't honestly believe this is a public performance that deserves a performance right. This is just a blatant money grab to try to force someone else to pay up. What's next? Auto dealers will have to pay a performance fee for having radios installed in cars?

Filed Under: hotels, ireland, performance rights, radio
Companies: ppi