[Dixielandjazz] ASCAP / BMI - The right to play music.

[Stephen Barbone]

For a good explanation of the way it is in the USA, see the below web
site.

http://www.woodpecker.com/writing/essays/royalty-politics.html

They usually go after the club, or radio station, or promoter for the
license. HOWEVER that is the "deep pockets" theory of The Law in the
USA. You sue the folks with the money, those with deep pockets.

Since we poor starving musicians, except for Tom Wiggins, have no money,
why would they sue us? But you can bet the farm that if they find out
about his cash horde, they'll sue him too.

I know some of the ASCAP spies locally who visit clubs and write down
tunes that infringe on the ASCAP catalog. Then ASCAP goes after the
club. Many "spies" are musicians who can't make a living playing.

Even songs in the public domain can require a "license fee" if someone
copyrighted a specific arrangement of it after 1923 and the band in a
club used that arrangement, in whole or part. Scary, even if you copy a
riff etc., from memory.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. Note for Tom. If you read the article from the site above, note that
it includes Parades. ;-)