artist performing rights payments

How does copyright protection work on TV?

Every day thousands of people tape programmes and films off their television either to watch once later or to keep for longer, at the end of the credits on 99% of these programmes it has the copyright information.

How can these possibly be enforced? If any person who does not live at the address sees a programme this would surely mean it is a ‘public broadcast’ and so therefore the owner of the house is breaking copyright law.

What about kids sat around listening to music on a hi-fi?

I could go on but face it, we are all law breakers!

I’m someone who should be earning his living with getting paid for creative use of words, and I say… don’t exaggerate it. A guy laying bricks on the pavement isn’t paid for each and every pedestrian crossing ‘his’ pavement either.

In an ideal world, artists (writers, musicians, filmers, photographers, you name it) should get paid well for releasing their work. After release, the work should IMHO be in the public domain, with a little courtesy for proper creative credit. It (ideally) shouldn’t matter if the work is really popular or not. The pavement-bricklayer doesn’t get paid 600% for laying some bricks on Picadilly Circus versus some unused brick footpath somewhere between Machrihanish and Campbeltown either.

Publishing unfortunately is a completely different business from the creative process, and unfortunately it’s the publishers which try to scrape together the payment for the artists. It’s bureaucratic organisations like PRS which try to make sure artists get some income despite them being exploited by the publishers/record companies/film studios…

Alcohol usually brings me into a state of eutopic marxism… 😀

Whilst on the face of it this can seem to be a tad crazy, but at the end of the day there is a need to protect the rights/ownership of artists. This also extends to other work, including photographs, artwork and the written word. All too often individuals “make free” with such property, and in the internet age in which we live it is all too prevalent. I for one am mightily peed off to find material I have written deliberately and blatantly plagiarised and re-used commercially. Frankly, its theft. I have every sympathy with musicians, or the PRS, who take the same line!

That’s why the radio station pays royalties to play the music. So if you are listening to the radio in a store, royalties will be paid.

Whilst on the face of it this can seem to be a tad crazy, but at the end of the day there is a need to protect the rights/ownership of artists. This also extends to other work, including photographs, artwork and the written word. All too often individuals “make free” with such property, and in the internet age in which we live it is all too prevalent. I for one am mightily peed off to find material I have written deliberately and blatantly plagiarised and re-used commercially. Frankly, its theft. I have every sympathy with musicians, or the PRS, who take the same line!

Have to agree with Tangmere here. If that’s how you make your living, that is the copyright law and you deserve to have protection. I can’t see many people being asked to work for free and agreeing to do it so why should musicians or anyone else who works creatively have to do it. Having found some of my work distributed across the internet when having to jump through hoops myself to get copyright on photos etc cleared at my own expense, it generally p..s me off that others can seemingly take it and use as they see fit.

As far as music is concerned, without the PRS people a lot of new bands would not get the royalties they deserve and so would probably pack it in leaving us to the corporate pap which seems to be seeping through radio today. I for one shudder at the thought that this could be what we end up with ….

Whilst on the face of it this can seem to be a tad crazy, but at the end of the day there is a need to protect the rights/ownership of artists. This also extends to other work, including photographs, artwork and the written word. All too often individuals “make free” with such property, and in the internet age in which we live it is all too prevalent. I for one am mightily peed off to find material I have written deliberately and blatantly plagiarised and re-used commercially. Frankly, its theft. I have every sympathy with musicians, or the PRS, who take the same line!

So what happens when a car drives past with its radio on and a window/sunroof open?

I can listen to that so surely the driver deserves reprimanding…. :confused:

artists performing rights

thankyou for the clarification on this point.

I still stand by my ‘anal’ comment.

Paul

You have my full agreement there Paul…:)

You need a licence from the PRS to broadcast music within a public environ. Believe it or not the ‘artists’ deserve to be paid too… Whilst I don’t particularly agree with people being sent out to enforce these rights against small businesses with the radio on, I do believe the rules and regulations concerning this are there and have been there for all to see, for a very long time.

Personally, my view is that if it’s on commercial radio then the advertisments pay for it, and if it’s on BBC then the licence fee pay’s for it. PRS enforcers could do better than ‘hassle’ small businesses for licence payments, but knowing a lot of small time musicians, I know that they quite literally rely on the royalty payments they receive from the PRS. Some musicians of course don’t really need the money but then again some do…

Some very fair points raised, Allen, but I still stand by my ‘anal’ comment.

Paul

today i collected some items from my local supplier today and noted their radio wasnt switched on as usual ,the manager then informed me they had turned it off as a representative from the artists performing rights had visited theirs and other nearby premises asking for royalty payments on behalf of the artists heard on the radio,he refused and promptly turned off the radio as have most of the other establishments in the vicinity,what is this all about? and if this is the case surely anyone listning to music on their radios albeit in the car,home etc could be liable to pay this fee? looks like george orwell is alive and very much kicking

You need a licence from the PRS to broadcast music within a public environ. Believe it or not the ‘artists’ deserve to be paid too… Whilst I don’t particularly agree with people being sent out to enforce these rights against small businesses with the radio on, I do believe the rules and regulations concerning this are there and have been there for all to see, for a very long time.

Personally, my view is that if it’s on commercial radio then the advertisments pay for it, and if it’s on BBC then the licence fee pay’s for it. PRS enforcers could do better than ‘hassle’ small businesses for licence payments, but knowing a lot of small time musicians, I know that they quite literally rely on the royalty payments they receive from the PRS. Some musicians of course don’t really need the money but then again some do…

today i collected some items from my local supplier today and noted their radio wasnt switched on as usual ,the manager then informed me they had turned it off as a representative from the artists performing rights had visited theirs and other nearby premises asking for royalty payments on behalf of the artists heard on the radio,he refused and promptly turned off the radio as have most of the other establishments in the vicinity,what is this all about? and if this is the case surely anyone listning to music on their radios albeit in the car,home etc could be liable to pay this fee? looks like george orwell is alive and very much kicking

It basically revoles around the fact that written into the copyright notice on almost every record you will buy is the distinct rule that ‘public performance is prohibited’. Even playing a radio in a shop can, if people are anal enough, be classed as public performance, despite the fact that same track is being broadcast to (potentially) millions of people. It’s an unfortunate fact that some people in this industry I’m a part of will take any opportunity they can to make money.

Sad, I know, but true.

Paul