[Dixielandjazz] Copywright thugery

[jazzfact]

Hi All,
I have had a couple of "run-ins" over the years with the Australian version
of the Music Mafia, APRA. 
It's a while but the first encounter was in an area where we operated two
restaurants with them chasing us for a fee. We had some live music in one
and a cassette player in the other. The suit in a BMW turned up on many
occasions at both venues and chased me for months to pay the fee. I found in
that case my continued resistance led to his getting pretty angry but, I
never paid a cent. In the end they left me alone. 

The second occaision was a lot more serious. As president of the Noosa Heads
Jazz Club Inc we got persued again some 2 years after we started the Jazz
Club. I personally started my (by now well practised) risistance and this
time I started to get some pretty heavy correspondence. The committee felt
that we should comply as the tone of their letters was very threatening.
Against my wishes, we had a vote and decided to comply. I sent a letter
asking for details of the charges and agreeing to start contributing when we
knew what the costs were. That was the last I ever heard from them. It
seemed they only wanted to win the argument! 


regards,
Richard Stevens
www.thejazzfactory.net


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