The UK-based Performing Rights Society are jumping on the suing bandwagon driven by the RIAA and are attempting to sue people who use radios in public places. As unbelievable as it is stupid, the group are suing car repair chain Kwik-Fit of copyright violation because their mechanics listened to music in their garages: this music, it claims, can be overheard by others.This ‘making hearable’ argument is a twist on the RIAA’s tried and tested making available argument, says ArsTechnica.
The Performing Rights Society – along with its eagle eared representatives – have noted over 250 ‘incidents’ in which Kwik-Fit infringed copyrights. This infringement was, PRS claims, known about or encouraged by management.
Making a public performance of music requires a license; this, the PRS claims, is where Kwik-Fit fell down. A license would be required in order to ‘perform’ the music in their workshops. This retrospective cost of these licenses, PRS calculates, comes to some £200,000 (~$400,000), and this is the figure claimed by the group.
The RIAA must be salivating over this incident – and no doubt conjuring up more ways in which to eke out relatively small sums of money from children, old people and single mothers. But US residents needn’t worry: the transmission of music from the radio in the manner in which those naughty mechanics did is completely legal under US law.