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Five years ago, we wrote about another such crazy demand -- a PRO in Sweden demanding that rental car companies pay a performance license because their cars had radios, and since "the public" could rent their cards[sic] and listen to the radio, that constituted "a communication to the public" that required a separate license. The case has bounced around the courts, and finally up to the Court of Justice for the EU which has now, finally, ruled that merely renting cars does not constitute "communication to the public."
See the CJEU's press release (.pdf) for details.
Basically, people aren't renting cars for the purpose of listening to music, and it's not like the rental car company is creating some special musical offering. They're just renting cars.
[...] But just the fact that this spent half a decade in court should give you an idea of just how greedy and messed up the copyright world is, with the various PROs/Collection Societies leading the way down the most ridiculous path.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday April 03 2020, @08:38PM (3 children)
They overreach to ridiculous lengths. The artists themselves are the ones pushing these narratives. For all their supposed superior discernment and expression of the human condition, they are remarkably tone deaf in this area. I recall a story from many years ago about ASCAP hammering restaurants for license fees. Didn't matter if the restaurant never played anything still under copyright, that they played music at all was all that mattered.
At a classical music concert, over 10 years ago, I saw plastered all over the concert hall, these menacing signs warning that recording of concerts was illegal and could be severely punished with massive fines, jail time, etc. I found the signs extremely offensive, and went looking for the people responsible. I thought it was the owners of the venue. Nope. Turned out, it was the musicians' union. I suppose I should have guessed as much. The person I reached explained that he musicians certainly didn't want any audience members recording them while they were performing, as if it was somehow totally obvious that doing so was an infringement of their rights. It's awfully like the police insisting that citizens can't record them while on the job.
At a rock concert (Earth, Wind & Fire) it was more muted. Maybe there were signs, but I didn't notice any. I took a few photos, and thought nothing of it. Afterwards, some random person sitting on something off to the side of the exit asked me about the pictures I took. I was a bit puzzled why this guy should care. I think he may have been one of the roadies. And I think they just might have incorporated into their light show tech intended to defeat video recording devices, and he was fishing for data that would help him learn how well that worked. On the other hand, conditions for photography were terrible, and maybe he only wanted to give me crap about how naughty it was of me to take photos. If so, he skipped the lecture and let it go. From his tone, I suspect that's what axe he was looking to grind. Anyway, only one of the photos I took was any good. The rest were blurry and dim. Also, I was way in back.
Since that's their attitude, f*** 'em. I never went to concerts much, and now, I don't go at all. I think not only should I be allowed to record any damned thing I please in those public places, they ought to offer free downloads of the performance!
They're damned greedy. Want copyright, and performance rights, and who knows what else. They ought to let copyright go, in exchange for improved performance rights.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 03 2020, @09:32PM (2 children)
I went and saw Tool on their recent tour.
Literally every 5 minutes before the show, the venue broadcast a message about how taking photos was banned, and if anyone took photos, they would be removed from the venue.
During the show however, a chap sitting not far from us was caught by security taking a picture. When security tried to remove him they discovered they had bitten off more than they could chew due to his friends and several bystanders refusing to take their shit.
We all laughed as they retreated with their tails between their legs.
Anyway, the pictures I took were rubbish too, due largely to how difficult the lighting is in concerts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 04 2020, @02:15PM
Yeah there are many videos of live concert performances on youtube and in most cases the quality isn't good enough to compete with the live performances. Nothing like being there for the better concerts. They're just to give you a rough idea of what you might get (other than the quality).
From what I see Coldplay concerts might be worth attending if you're OK with their music. Example of recording from far away:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLRCvInHIGg [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCZzOSVxBJE [youtube.com]
And nearer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRv2dAdMW2A [youtube.com]
(The lighted wristbands that attendees get are part of the performance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xyloband#Uses [wikipedia.org] ).
The Tool concerts don't look as interesting for me.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday April 04 2020, @03:34PM
Awesome! Stupid rules may have a silver lining. They're great rebel training. People learn not to take shit by defying those rules. I handled some medical bills for the emergency the same way. Fought them for a year through proper channels, then, finally getting that they weren't being honest and were giving me runarounds, told them I did not agree with their billing practices, accused them of price gouging (15,000% markup, reduced by insurance to only 3000%), and refused to pay. The debt collectors haven't bothered me since. I was not sued, and even my credit rating was undamaged.
It can take years to learn when you can get away with defiance, and when you can't, and there's still considerable uncertainty. They can give you a load of manure, and yet get away with it and win, because of corruption. Like the time I lost an appeal of a red light camera ticket at one of those kangaroo court hearings. Brought them good evidence that their setup was in error. But for purposes of the hearing, the accuracy and honesty of their equipment was beyond question, and so that issue wasn't allowed any consideration. The judge did suggest that I could press onward and go to municipal court where my contentions would get a hearing, maybe. Of course the whole idea was ridiculous, in that the disputed amount was the carefully low figure of only $75. Maybe a better way to fight that is simply refuse to pay, and don't waste time with hearings. Anyway, I was pretty sure of the outcome of the hearing, and the main reason I did it was to cost the city more than the $75 they were fining me. I wanted to make it so they could not profit, which is the real purpose of red light camera programs and for that matter entirely too much traffic enforcement, and not any concerns over traffic safety. Nature has a very effective deterrent, in that depending on the circumstances, the cost of running a red light is, of course, a high chance of causing a wreck.
Maybe the EW&F concert broadcast the same sort of message beforehand. I don't know, because I arrived a few minutes late.