It’s not often that I look to the heavens for some semblance of justice and understanding. But this is one of those rare occasions. ASCAP is currently arguing the case that every time a ringtone on your cellphone is played in public, you, or your carrier, should pay royalties on this “public performance.” Oh, for the love of God.

I’ve never really had any reason to discuss the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) before, let alone hate this organization. But this news has prompted me to do both. I thought the RIAA was bad enough, especially after it recently successfully sued a woman to the tune of $1.92 million over music worth $24, but ASCAP has now overtaken the RIAA on my hate list.

The EFF has uncovered the full story of how ASCAP wants to claim more money from musical ringtones on cellphones. The claim came in a brief filed as part of ASCAP’s legal battle with AT&T. ASCAP argues that every time a ringtone is played in public, the user is “violating copyright law by publicly performing it without a license.” Which has got to be about the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard.

Is ASCAP forgetting, or simply choosing to ignore, the fact that most ringtones have already been legitimately purchased somewhere along the line? Every composer, songwriter, and publisher is already getting what is owed to them for each download but ASCAP wants more, a payment every time the piece of music is performed in public.

EFF has fortunately already found the legal answers to this claim. For starters, no court has ever, or likely ever would, agree that a short snippet of a piece of music played on a cellphone would constitute a “public performance.” Otherwise, wouldn’t having your car radio on loud with the windows down, or even listening to an mp3 player in a crowd also be a huge no-no?

There’s also a section of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 110(4), which has an exception for exactly this type of argument. It states that performances made “without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage” are not liable under the laws dictating royalty payments.

I really don’t know what planet some of these organizations are living on, but it certainly isn’t Planet Earth. Maybe one day they will all realize that we’re not all out to steal content without paying the creators what they are owed, we just want to pay a fair amount of money, and only pay once as well. All cases such as this do is turn the public against content creators and the organizations charged with collecting their money.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 11:52 pm under Amusing, Cell phones, Legal, Music, Opinion.

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