Karaoke Forums

You're in Seattle, aren't you?? That is like the heart of American music nowadays. That is why you get bothered all the time with this nonsense. If a guy is in a rural area, far removed from the mainstream, there should be no problem with recording performances for customers. I used to go to a place on Long Island that would do that, and they NEVER had trouble over it.

There was a lawsuit against a bar and kj in Eastern Washington by ASCAP or BMI a while back but that was for using copied discs. A club I worked at in 95 had to shut down all entertainment for two weeks while they worked out a deal which included retro active payments. The club I work at now never thought they needed to pay, but were hounded for 2 years and finally received a letter of intent to sue from ASCAP. They've paid all 3 since 96.

That is not a suit for copied discs, it's a suit for nonpayment of the yearly fees. Performance societies don't care if your discs are copied or not - it's the performance of the work that the bar pays for.

Doesn't make it legal to do. Just because you can get away with breaking the law doesn't mean you should.

Seen what done? The recording or someone filing "a stink?"

I've never.... EVER.... seen ASCAP or anyone else file any kind of action against a KJ for recording anything, anywhere.

Can you give us at least one example?