Folly

Tavern owner ends live music after ASCAP suits

Proof that it’s the industries with no morals at all that make the loudest claims about moral rights.

…But the stage at Skip’s has been silent since Oct. 1, when owner Bill Courtright pulled the plug after deciding that offering live music wasn’t worth the legal trouble it was attracting.

Twice in less than a year, Courtright was sued for copyright infringement by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, which collects royalty payments for copyright holders and represents them in legal disputes.
Courtright’s troubles began in September 2002, when he received a letter claiming that a private investigator hired by ASCAP heard musicians playing covers of copyrighted songs at Skip’s on June 22, 2002.

The letter, from the San Francisco office of the law firm Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, threatened a lawsuit.

Under copyright law, Courtright can be held liable for the copyright infringements at his club because he never purchased a license from ASCAP.

Yet Courtright and Regi Harvey, a drummer and guitarist who was on stage on the night in question, vehemently deny that any such infringement took place. In fact, copies of the lawsuits and supporting documentation reveal two very different versions of what was played that night.

Harvey said the three songs in question — “Shop Around,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “Where Is the Love?” — are not even in his band’s repertoire….

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2003 at 11:04 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.