The American Society of Composers, Actors and Publishers has filed suit against Rome Street Tavern for holding "Open Mic" nights. I would write here that I'm surprised, but there's no way to convey sarcasm in print, so I'll simply say this fits a larger pattern of abuse from entertainment unions, such as the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America. These two groups have been trying to grab average people by their jewels and are looking to twist.
The RIAA and MPAA have been suing people for "copyright infringement", a nebulous term that has mostly meant that people are downloading music or movies over the internet. For the most part, they're just trying to stop widespread piracy, because by this point it's obvious that it's impossible to stop piracy, as long as we are entertained by varying light and sound waves that are projected for viewing and listening pleasure; those light and sound waves are always going to be able to be captured by various recording devices.
They aren't able to stop the pirates, the big-name ones who do the most damage, because they are usually based in countries like Taiwan, China and Russia which have either no international treaty obligations to protect copyright or lax enforcement of those obligations. So, they've decided instead to target average people who might download music from the internet infrequently. Often, these are people of little or no means, such as college students or the elderly. Now, I'm sure you wonder, why would they sue Grandmas out there for downloading music, when many can hardly operate a word processor?
Well, they've established through court precedents and lobbying, that it doesn't matter who actually downloads something, as long as they can pin it on someone. They've filed thousands of lawsuits against "John Doe" and used them to subpoena private internet access records. When they find something suspicious, they file suit; they don't need definitive evidence, or really any evidence at all. They merely file and file en masse, using a tactic commonly called "shotgunning"; firing off a wide spray of lawsuits, and hoping one of them pays off. These suits usually cost the defendants hundreds, if not thousands.
Now, the ASCAP is suing Rome Street Tavern for holding "Open Mic" nights, reasoning that they are providing a venue for people to infringe on songwriting copyrights by singing cover songs of popular bands. Now, the problem with this is threefold:
1) "Open Mic" nights are not exclusively for cover songs. Many artists are known to play their own works. By forcing venues like Rome Street Tavern to either pay up or shut down, the ASCAP is preventing future songwriters and performers from practicing their art. This, to me, is the most unacceptable part of this. As I have many friends in this city who used and still use the Open Mic venues as a way to get their work out there.
2) ASCAP does not merely represent artists whose music is used at these venues, but thousands others. By requesting a blanket royalty to the ASCAP to hold these "Open Mic" events, ASCAP is forcing Rome Street and others to pay guys like Harold Ramis (director of "Groundhog Day") for the right to play songs, regardless of if someone sings "I'm Your Weatherman" from Ramis' movie. This seems stupid and unfair to the artists whose music is played, as their royalty is decreased.
3) Finally, ASCAP's apparent policy of sending people to sit around various restaurants and bars has a chilling effect: if a business can now be fined for the activities of patrons, what else will have to be restricted? If I go use the restroom at the Tavern, will I have to look at a sign that says, "Whistling copyrighted music prohibited by law?" Will I have to have a microphone in my bathroom now, monitored by ASCAP Special Agents, to keep me from singing in the shower?
If ASCAP wants to get compensation for their artists, they should look into a more fair way of ensuring their artists get royalties without decreasing their royalties to benefit less popular artists. Not to say Harold Ramis isn't a good guy, I just don't see why he should get money because some guy belts out Dave Matthews on Open Mic.
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